‘Children are having to learn how to make eye contact because of smartphones’
Expert Aiken warns of dangers
THE world’s top cyber psychologist has said children are having to learn how to make eye contact in school because of their excessive smartphone use.
Calling on the Education Minister to do more to tackle phone use in schools, Dr Mary Aiken said no child under 14 should be allowed to own a smartphone.
She said children are learning their behaviours through their parents who are ‘consumed by their devices.’ Dr Aiken – who is a supporter of the Irish Daily Mail’s Protect Our Kids Online campaign – told the World Meeting of Families pastoral congress at the RDS yesterday: ‘My advice for parents is mindfulness – for parents to become mindful of the impact of technology of children in the home. It really impacts the ecosystem of the family, it’s not just individual use of technology that can be damaging in terms of development, and it’s the use of technology in the home.
‘The one thing I want to discuss here at the WMOF is to be mindful without use of technology, specifically when preparing kids for going back to school.’
She added: ‘One of the saddest things that I’ve heard is that teachers when they have a new intake of children in school, one of the first things they have to do is put them in a circle and teach the children to make eye contact,’ Dr Aiken said yesterday.
She called on the Department of Education to set up ‘working groups’ in schools to tackle the growing issues surrounding smartphones. And she commended the model adopted by Blennerville National School in Co. Kerry which, earlier this year, introduced an outright ban on smartphones in the school and, in agreement with the parents, at home. Ahead of the new school year Dr Aiken, an expert on cyber crime at Europol offered advice to parents struggling to tell their children ‘no’ when it comes to owning smartphones.
‘I would start weaning kids off their vacation use of technology, which will actually help them with their focus when returning to school. They will be going from being on their smartphones 12 hours a day to actually having to sit in class and concentrate. It’s going to be a shock and it’s going to be difficult,’ she said.
Dr Aiken told The Irish Daily Mail that she thinks the idea of schools having a ‘digital detox’ is a great idea. ‘I think the model Blennerville National School has set is an excellent idea: it’s the school and parents coming together and deciding on a protocol for using technology.’
A spokesman for the Department of Education said: ‘Minister [Richard] Bruton issued a circular to all schools earlier this year, requiring them to consult with parents and the school community on the use of smart phones and digital devices in schools.’
‘It’s going to be difficult’
IT is bad enough that children have become addicted to smartphones – but their parents seem no better. Speaking at the World Meeting of Families, Mary Aiken, the world’s top cyberpsychologist, said that the average person touches his or her smartphone up to 2,500 times a day, touch that better would be utilised in stroking a child’s cheek or giving a toddler a cuddle.
Children themselves are so engrossed in their phones they have to be taught how to make eye contact with others, a quite shocking indictment of the grip mobile phone mania has on the young.
Her message is clear. Parents need to be mindful of the amount of time they allow their children spend on their phones – though it would be better if they did not buy them at all.