Children and Their Use of Electronics

Over the past eight years I have babysat for many families which has given me experience with children of all different ages and abilities. I also have many small cousins whose development and upbringing I am very involved in. One thing that has shocked me over the past few years is how reliant all of these different kids have become on handheld electronics. While some parents see no qualms with allowing their children unlimited access to whatever their hearts desire, I am noticing many parents who are beginning to question if allowing so much time on electronics is detrimental to the development of their children.

A Huffington Post article recently released gives ten reasons as to why children under the age of 12 should not be allowed to use handheld electronics. They give ten reasons with support as to why this should be the case. The first example is how in the first two years of life the brain develops at a very rapid pace and the lack of stimuli from handheld electronics can cause this grown to greatly slow down. This can even cause problems such as attention deficit disorders and impaired learning. The second and third relate to the lack of movement from handheld electronics-delayed development and epidemic obesity. Since the use of handheld electronics causes such little movement the development of the brain and motor skills is delayed and the lack of physical movement is causing an increase in obesity in children.

Electronics have been shown to cause many issues such as sleep deprivation, mental illness and higher aggression in individuals and this is the same for children as well. However, these can be a much greater risk in children since they are still developing their mental and physical skills and attention spans. This can cause many problems down the road as well.  Electronics can also cause a new type of addiction where children continually want to be using their electronics. Children have begun to lost interest in other aspects of life such as sports and friends. Now spending time with friends is often competing with each other on a video game or everyone surrounding an electronic device watching someone else use it.

In one particular family I babysit for I have seen a higher rate of aggression begin to form in the boys when I tell them they are not allowed to use their devices. They often get angry and yell at me and attempt to sneak them past me or come up with excuses to try to use them. I have also begun to see how the younger boy gets distracted very easily and even has a hard time focusing enough to eat breakfast. It became such a problem in school that his teachers sent home notes about his attention problems and the electronics were taken from the boys for an extended period of time. To this day they are very limited in their electronic use and all use is monitored closely by the adult with them. This change brought great improvement in how they have grown and their interest in physical activities and social situations. I personally think it is a great idea to limit and in some situations eliminate the use of hand held electronics by children. I feel that it will better help children to develop and learn vital life skills that cannot be learned by looking into a glowing screen.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cris-rowan/10-reasons-why-handheld-devices-should-be-banned_b_4899218.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063