‘Parents must take tough decisions’

MORE parents need to take difficult decisions on limiting their children’s access to social media if they want to avoid more serious problems later on, a leading parenting expert has said.

Clinical psychologist David Coleman, pictured, said that most parents aren’t being proactive enough in managing their children’s access to smartphones, tablets and games.

Instead, they are simply handing over their smartphones or tablets to children without thinking of the consequences, he said.

‘I still, regularly, see children as young as two or three being given their parent’s mobile phone to occupy them when they are in restaurants or any situation where they might have to wait,’ Dr Coleman wrote in yesterday’s Irish Independent.

‘I think lots of parents may not realise the impact this has on a child.

‘As their child grows older, parents continue to use digital devices as a form of babysitter. Then, when the use of computers, gaming consoles and/or phones to occupy children becomes more problematic (because the child is so engaged and engrossed and won’t give them up), many parents throw their hands up and blame the game or the device.’

Dr Coleman warned that many parents do not seem to realise the impact the internet, social media and games are having on their children.

He continued: ‘Slowly and incrementally, over time, those games and devices have become the almost exclusive source of entertainment for the child and the child naturally struggles when asked to give it up.’

Dr Coleman advised parents to take difficult decisions about how they let their children access digital media and to be ‘in charge of it’ right from the outset.