Negative Effects of Screen Time in Children
Director’s Message
Negative Effects of Screen Time in Children
While ARMin is focused in supporting people in the process of recovery from compulsive unhealthy habits, it also aims at engaging people of every age in prevention strategies. While it is critical to walk the 12 steps in the recovery process we must not neglect to help parents, young adults, and youth in addiction prevention.
Parents play a critical role in helping prevent addictive behaviors in their kids. One example is in the area of technology. Our world is now structured around technology and kids are often left to their video games, computers, and cell phones, often without any limits on time and content.
Based on current research regarding the negative effects of exposure to technology among young kids, the American Pediatric Association developed recommendations for parents to ban any exposure for kids below 2 years old. Kids 3-5 years old should be limited to 1 hr a day and kids 6-18 only 2 hrs a day. Why? Some of the negative effects technology has are: development of attention deficit disorder, cognitive delays, impaired learning, tantrums, increased impulsivity. Besides that impact in the brain, other related problems are obesity, sleep deprivation, aggression, digital dementia and addictions.
God has called us to choose wisely what to see, hear and listen to, and for how long. Parent’s have a responsibility to guide their children in this area. Encourage them to spend time reading printed books and above all the Bible. This will go a long way to help our kids experience less addictive behaviors related to technology.
Katia Reinert, PhDc, CRNP, FCN