Living their lives through a screen
INCREASING numbers of children are choosing to live like a recluse, spending most of their time online and unable to see the point of real life friendships, a psychologist is warning.
Parents are being urged to put strategies in place to limit screen time and encourage face-to-face interaction in the upcoming school holidays, to protect their children’s health and wellbeing.
It comes as a group of respected Australian psychiatrists and psychologists specialising in video gaming, technology and associated
behavioural difficulties have formed the Australian Gaming & Screens Alliance (AGASA) to call on the government to take action after the amount of time kids are spending online got a “lot worse” during Covid.
One of the members, Director of the Screens and Gaming Disorder Clinic Brad Marshall, said the number of kids who are socially isolated is increasing.
His joint research with Macquarie University published in March this year found three per cent of Aussie kids – or 120,000 – have Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and 400,000 have a problem
with internet use.
A recent UK study found that more than half of 11 to 18year-olds spend most of their spare time in their bedrooms, with fears it could be leading to a new phenomenon – the teenage recluse.
“I see kids that think they don’t need ‘In Real Life’ friendships,” Mr Marshall said.
“They think social in-person friendships are overrated and we are all boomers for thinking that way.”
Mr Marshall said since Covid he has noticed more kids with unhealthy gaming habits are pushing their parents to allow them to be
homeschooled. “Before Covid most parents would have said no, but these days because parents have seen it is possible, they are saying yes,” Mr Marshall said.
He said nine out of 10 times homeschooling doesn’t work for this cohort of kids, as they use the time to game and then in the holidays they have no social contacts to draw on.
Mr Marshall said parents can’t blame kids for wanting to go online, as the games and algorithms have been designed to be addictive.
But they must limit their children’s screen time, with anything more than three to five hours of a day, including
TV, Youtube and phone use, having a negative impact.
A US study found that more than seven hours a day causes children’s brain cortex to thin prematurely, normally associated with ageing memory loss and cognitive impairments.
Child psychiatrist Dr Kim Le from Adelaide, and another member of AGASA, said most parents have no idea how damaging screen use is for their kids’ health.
He said that Australia should look to China, where children are not allowed to game for more than three hours a week, and it is strictly monitored by the government.