Early exposure to smartphones poses danger to kids
How young is too young for children to have a smartphone? Karen D’Souza reports.
Catherine Amores is shopping around for a new smartphone. Only it’s not for her. It’s for her 8-yearold son. The stay-at-home mum says she will feel better if he has an iPhone with him at all times.
‘‘Everything I see on the TV news makes me worry all the time.
‘‘There was a school lockdown in our neighbourhood recently.
‘‘That’s why I think it is very important to get him a smartphone,’’ said the 24-year-old mother-of-three. ‘‘Being able to get a hold of him immediately will give me peace of mind.’’
As smartphones dominate our lives, many parents feel pressured to buy them for their children at younger and younger ages. Some, like Amores, fear losing touch with their children in a crisis. Others believe the devices offer educational opportunities or worry their children will feel left out because their friends have phones.
By the age of 13, 83 per cent of children have their own phone – up from 34 per cent in 2012, according to a Common Sense Media report last year. And a widely cited 2016 report by Influence Central put the average age for a child to get a cellphone at about 10. As the age drops, parents are left wrestling with the question of how young is
too young for a smartphone.
‘‘Phones are status symbols especially in our tech-worshipping society. But it is parents’ responsibility to make the right call for each child, not just because everyone has one,’’ said Caroline Knorr, senior parenting editor at Common Sense Media.
‘‘The risk with younger children getting phones is that the devices are very powerful and require some level of maturity and responsibility.’’
California students could soon be restricted or banned from using smartphones at school under a proposed law which would require schools to limit or prohibit the use of cellphones on school grounds.
Experts have long warned that exposing children to smartphones too soon poses potential dangers, from health concerns to social setbacks. ‘‘Research tells us that increased use of screens is associated with poorer academics, obesity, decreased fitness, reduced social interaction and disturbed sleep,’’ said Richard Bromfield, a professor of psychology at Harvard.
The brain can be rewired by too much exposure to a smartphone as a child, scientists warn. Children who use smartphones and other screens for more than seven hours a day are more likely to experience premature thinning of the cortex, the outermost layer of the brain that processes thought and action, according to a 2018 study released by the National Institutes of Health. Yet many parents feel the risks of a scary world are more pressing. Amores wants to give her son a smartphone, instead of a flip phone, so she can video chat with him and pinpoint his location.
Adamma Ison hasn’t got her 4-year-old son a smartphone but she has let him use her Samsung so much he thinks it belongs to him.
He began watching YouTube to learn his letters, his numbers and the difference between an octagon and a hexagon around the age of 2. Ison says the phone has been a great educational tool.
‘‘It can be hard to hold a small child’s attention but YouTube catches his attention and keeps it,’’ said Ison, 39. ‘‘It has helped him absorb complex information, expand his vocabulary and teach him life skills.’’
Eighty-one per cent of parents with children age 11 or younger let their child watch videos on YouTube and 34 per cent do so regularly, according to a report last year from the Pew Research Centre. However, having the internet in your pocket also means running the risk of addiction to constant stimulation, doctors say.
‘‘My biggest worry is the way too much smartphone, and social media in all its forms, trains a child’s brain to think about nothing but the latest tweet, text or ping,’’ said Bromfield. ‘‘I worry too that today’s children seem unable to tolerate their own company.’’
That’s why Emma Wrankmore’s children don’t have phones.
She worries they would distract her 10-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter from the pleasures of childhood like climbing trees and playing tag with friends at the park while also exposing them to cyberbullying. ‘‘I plan to hold out as long as I can,’’ said the Fremont, California, mother. ‘‘Elementary school feels too young to me. I will probably give in once the majority of the school class has them.’’
Two years ago, Brooke Shannon started the online Wait Until 8th pledge, a national movement urging parents to hold off on smartphones until 8th grade or age 14. The pledge only kicks in when 10 other families in your child’s grade and school have also signed up.
‘‘We all got swept away by the tidal wave of technology. It’s been very normalised so that everywhere you go, you see little children using smartphones,’’ said Shannon, who lives in Texas and started the effort after seeing legions of first- and second-graders with smartphones. ‘‘But the fact is it’s not good for them.’’
But Ison sees it differently. She’s well aware she has to constantly monitor what her son is watching on her phone. She said she would never use the phone as a babysitter.
‘‘The parents who have trouble with technology are the ones who aren’t paying attention,’’ said Ison. ‘‘They aren’t really present with their children. Technology is not permission to check out. You have to supervise it.’’ – TNS