STAY OFF YOUR MOBILE AT HOME

Parents warned that constant use of smartphones during family time is damaging children - and they pick up your bad habits

PARENTS who constantly check smartphones and spend excessive time on social media risk damaging their children’s schoolwork – and possibly their mental health. Youngsters are increasingly picking up bad habits from technology- obsessed mothers and fathers.

And experts last night warned that the phenomenon is damaging both their psychological health and school performance.

Child health education specialist Dr Aric Sigman said parents need to act as good role models for youngsters by having ‘ screen-free dinners’ and not allowing their technology to ‘amputate’ family conversations.

Dr Sigman, who is a fellow of the royal Society of Medicine, believes areas of family life need to be protected from ‘intrusions by entertainment screens’.

He said heads should also urge parents to slash their children’s ‘excessive’ recreational screen time outside school to no more than two hours a day – the level recommended by health bodies around the world. They must i ntervene because ‘screen misuse at home can have an

impact on mental health’, which makes it ‘school business’.

He said parents should give their children the ‘gift of boredom’ saying it teaches them to entertain themselves.

Dr Sigman will make the claims at a Mental Health in Schools conference today, organised by charity, Young-Minds and Kingston Grammar School.

Speaking ahead of the conference at the private boys’ school in South West London, Dr Sigman said: ‘ Headteachers should talk about parental role modelling.

‘Parental role modelling is an important factor in very high levels of British children’s discretionary screen time.

‘So parents need to look at their own (smartphone) use and how much they do it in front of their children and to set a good example.’

He added: ‘ They need to discipline themselves to not allow family conversations to be interrupted and amputated, to allow their home to become an eco - system of interruption technologies.

‘Because this sends a message to children that th e most important thing in your home is to look at a screen, even if someone’s there who wants to speak to you.

‘ Parents need to discipline their own use so if that they do need to do certain things on screens, they do their emails at a certain time on a Sunday afternoon: they close the door, come out and re- engage with their families.

‘But don’t let the technology bleed into minute by minute social interactions in the house.’

He also recommended that families should regularly have ‘ screen- free dinners where everything’s put in a technology basket and turned off ’.

This will help ‘cordon off areas of our family life where we don’ t have intrusions by entertainment screens,’ he said.

Dr Sigman added: ‘Also, they (head t eachers) s hould t el l parents they should not be worried about giving their children the gift of boredom – this idea that children will be bored if they don’t have their entertainment screens.

‘Boredom is good for children. It allows children to discover how to entertain themselves. This is a very good life lesson.’

He pointed to official data which shows that, by the age of seven, children will have watched screens recreationally for nearly one full year of 24-hour days.

By the time they reach the age of 18, however, this will typically have risen to three full years of 24-hour days

Internet use among 16 to 24-yearolds has also almost tripled in a decade, with these young people now spending more time using media or communications than they do sleeping. This is partly due to the rise of smartphones and tablets, which make it much more accessible.

Dr Sigman will say that children’s alertness, concentration levels and moods are affected by ‘excessive discretionary screen time’.

He will say: ‘There comes a point where what goes on at home affects children’s wellbeing at school.

‘We’ve reached that point… and it is now incumbent upon headteachers to intervene.’

A study from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published yesterday found that teenagers who spend over six hours online before and after school are more likely to be lonely and skip lessons.

They s uff er l ower emotional well-being than students with more ‘moderate’ internet use.

‘Boredom is good

for children’