Parents are resorting to tablets and smartphones to keep their toddlers
entertained in the car, before bed, and even at the dinner table.
Toddlers who spend up to three hours a day staring at
smartphones, tablets and TVs could be at risk of developing screen dependency
disorders later in childhood, it has been claimed.
A survey of 1,000 parents, commissioned by ITV's Good Morning Britain , has
revealed that just under a quarter of parents allow their children aged two and
under to have as much as three hours of screen time a day.
The older children get, the more screen time they are allowed. Of those who
have children under five, 79% said they give their child screen time, and over
a third (37%) said they allow their child between two and three hours a day.
Two in five parents said they use phones and tablets
to keep their children entertained while travelling, and 25% allow screen time
before bed. 13% aid they even allowed their children to play with gadgets at
meal times.
When asked whether they felt their child had the right
balance between screen and non-screen related play, 85% of those surveyed said
they did.
However, when asked whether they thought the UK should
be brought in line with Australia, and advise no screen time for children under
the age of two, 58% said they agreed or strongly agreed.
Mum Jodie White from Poole told Good Morning Britain that her
son Oliver, aged two, is obsessed with watching screens, and is often on the
iPhone or iPad from the moment he wakes up in the morning.
Sometimes he even comes into his parents' bedroom
while they're alseep, takes the phone off charge, and plays on it for an hour
until it's time to get dressed and have breakfast.
"I would say Oliver's probably on the iPad or the
phone for at least three hours a day. If my phone has no charge or if he is on
something and it runs out of charge the phone will get launched," she
said.
"If I say no or take if off him once he's on it,
anything and everything in his way will get launched or he just has the biggest
paddy on the planet."
Oliver goes to nursery three mornings a week, and
there are no screens allowed there. But Jodie admits that, when he's at home,
he can be playing on up to three screens simultaneously.
"We could have Thomas the Tank Engine on the
telly, 'Wind The Bobbin Up' on my iPad, and photos up on my phone - so he'll
have all three going on at once," she said.
Jodie said she tries to police the amount of time
Oliver plays on the tablet, but concedes that it's often easier to hand the
phone over to the toddler to keep him quiet.
She also admitted that, during long car journeys, it
can be a godsend to keep him entertained.
Commenting on the news, psychologist Aric Sigman said
that tablet usage among babies and toddlers has increased rapidly, and this
could be contributing to screen dependency disorders later in childhood.
"A tech device may be yet another toy but it has
the potential to cultivate a dependence in ways that other toys don't,"
said Sigman, who has published a paper on the topic of screen dependency in the Journal of the International Child
Neurology Association .
"Early intensive exposure may be setting the
infants and toddlers up for an addiction that could appear later."
He added that earlier age of initiation and excessive
levels of exposure to, for example, computer games may increase this risk in
those genetically predisposed.
"As with any addiction - whether chemical or
behavioural - some children will inherit genes that make them far more likely
to become addicted while others simply won't and this now seems to apply to
screen dependency disorders," he said.
"We must recognise that children's screen habits are established early and
last for decades.
"Greater parental monitoring of child screen use
can reduce early exposure, alter long-term media consumption habits and may
prove a major inhibitor of later screen dependency disorders."
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