In our fast-paced world, it’s easy to get caught up in the rush and overlook the impact of our lifestyles, especially to children. Unmoderated screen time poses significant risks to children’s health, affecting them both individually and as a generation. As today’s children will become tomorrow’s adults, it is crucial to understand the potential negative effects of excessive screen time. Prolonged exposure to screens can disrupt sleep patterns, reduce physical activity, and contribute to behavioral issues. Additionally, the constant stimulation from screens can impair cognitive and physical development, as well as their emotional regulation. Addressing these concerns is essential for promoting healthier habits and ensuring a better future for the next generation. Here are some major ways that screen time can impact children.
Can cause damage to Vision
Children are at a crucial stage in their development, with their bodies constantly growing and changing. This makes the way they are nurtured and their environment particularly important for their overall development. One concern is the frequent use of screens, which emit blue light. This type of light has been linked to damage to retinal cells and cause vision problems such as age-related macular degeneration. In fact, a study by the National Eye Institute found that the greatest risk for nearsightedness and myopia progression takes place in childhood. Therefore, being at greater risk and exposed to triggering factors at a young age can not only lead to immediate negative symptoms but also cause harmful effects on their development in the future.
Lack of Physical Activity
In our rapidly evolving technological world, children are exposed to screen time at much higher rates than in the past. When not used in moderation, excessive screen time can have negative effects on health. A study has shown that increased screen time correlates with reduced levels of physical activity. This shift towards a more sedentary lifestyle can increase the risk of serious health issues, such as obesity. Food is typically converted into energy when consumed by an active and healthy individual. However, if this energy is not used due to a sedentary lifestyle, it is stored in the body, leading to an increase in body mass index (BMI). To manage weight and support overall health, it is recommended that children engage in 60 minutes of aerobic activity each day.
Attention problems
A study conducted a systematic review of the association between attention problems and screen time. A systematic review involves collecting and analyzing data from multiple studies to answer a specific research question. In this review, researchers identified 498 articles, thoroughly examined 41 of them, and included 11 in their analysis. Most of these articles supported the conclusion that screen time contributes to attention problems, though not necessarily ADHD. Additionally, modern screen time often involves fast-paced shows that captivate viewers with frequent changes, vibrant colors, and high-energy content. This type of media can exacerbate behaviors such as impulsivity, hyperactivity, disorganization, restlessness, and difficulty concentrating and completing tasks.
Sleep
Sleep is a crucial component of overall health and well-being, especially for children’s development. According to Kids Health, children need varying amounts of sleep based on their age:
- Toddlers (1–2 years): 11–14 hours, including naps
- Preschoolers (3–5 years): 10–13 hours, including naps
- School-age children (6–13 years): 9–12 hours
- Teens (14–17 years): 8–10 hours
Without adequate sleep, children may struggle with daily functions and fail to respond to their body’s need for rest. Research shows that screen time can increase alertness and elevate heart rate, making it harder for children to unwind and get the sleep they need. Additionally, the blue light emitted by screens can suppress melatonin production. Melatonin is often referred to as the sleep hormone, and is produced by the pineal gland that helps regulate sleep by responding to reduced light exposure.
Decline in Academic Performance
Children being exposed to screens early in their life is associated with lower successes in academic achievement, in other words when your child spends too much time staring at screens, playing games or looking through social media, the act alone can lead to lower levels of academic performance. Studies revealed that kids who had too much screen time presented lower scores on standardized tests, the ones that usually measure skills in math and english. A similar study found the same negative correlation between screen time and academic achievement, once again proving that increased screen time can lead to lower academic performance.
Less Feelings of Empathy
Empathy motivates social interactions towards others, and it is also the key for children to develop deeper connections with people other than family, such as classmates or teachers, or even other kids on the playground. There is a danger of excessive screen time to children and their empathy, Unicef reveals that there is research proving that too much time staring at screens prevents the children’s ability to properly learn how to read faces or learn proper social skills, the two key things to develop empathy. Too much screen time can even lead to heightened aggression in children. It’s always good to limit the screen time, especially for young children, for the benefit of their brain development and their future connections.
Problems with Language Development
Learning how to pronounce certain vowels and consonants is important in a child’s life as they grow up, the responsibility of this falling on the parents to properly teach their child how to speak and form words. However the overall social interaction between children and their family is already an important factor of language development, studies emphasize the importance of the frequency and quality of these interactions. When children have their eyes glued to the screen, it creates a barrier between them and their parents, limiting proper social interaction through their younger years, soon after reducing their ability to properly learn how to speak and say certain words. Studies have confirmed the negative correlation between screen time and language development.
Poor Mental Health
At a young age, children already begin to have a heavy dependency on their mobile devices, whether it be their phone, tablet, or their gaming console. The increased amount of screentime in adolescence has researchers concluding that excessive screen time leads to poor mental health and even worse behavioral problems. In the context of anxiety and depression, there was a study done on 4528 participants that discussed the relationship between mental health and screen time. Finding that too much screen time is significantly associated with the increased risk of both depression and anxiety. The faculty at the Yale Department of Psychiatry and Columbia School of Nursing conducted a similar study on over 5100 adolescents, finding that children who spend most of their time staring at screens ended up with higher levels of issues such as depression, anxiety, social anxiety, aggression, defiance, and bullying. Concluding that with excessive screen time comes the cost of proper brain development
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that for children under 2, they should be getting no screen time at all, increasing to one hour per day for ages 2 to 12, and two hours per day for teenagers and adults. However, such times are almost impossible in this day and age where technology consumes our lives. With these restrictions in mind for your child, be reasonable when setting limits, such as keeping tech outside of the bedroom during night time, having tech-free zones or times at home, or even encouraging playtime where technology is not involved. Children that are born in this generation will soon become the future many of us will rely on and look up to. So it is important that they are protected now so they can perform better as they grow older.
