Child doesn’t eat without phone?Image Credit source: OR Images/DigitalVision/Getty Images
There are often warnings from experts about the harm that using a mobile phone causes to physical as well as mental health, but still people spend a long time of their day using the phone. Apart from adults, this habit is also seen quite a lot in children. Many times, parents allow their children to use their phones to make them agree to something or to silence them from crying. Dr. Manoj Mani, District President of Indian Academy of Pediatrics, Kollam, has conducted a study in which it was found that 89.1 percent children spend different amounts of time on the phone screen. In this study, it has also been told that how much time children spend on the phone, how it is related to the background of the parents and at what time parents allow their children to use the phone the most.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children under 18 months of age should not be given phones at all and screen time in any way is not good for them. Apart from this, children up to 5 years of age should not spend more than 30 minutes on screen time in a day and this should also be under the supervision of parents. For now, let us know what this new study says about children’s screen time.
Study conducted on 18 month old children
In this study conducted by the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, the focus was on children visiting vaccination centers at the age of 18 months. In this study, the social and educational background of the children’s parents was also kept in mind. After this, a conclusion was drawn about how children spend time on the phone.
Educational background makes a difference
The study concluded that the exposure to screen time was 100 percent in the children whose mothers had studied up to high school i.e. 10th, but in the children whose mothers had studied till 12th, this percentage was 89 percent. Whereas if we talk about the screen time of children of mothers who have done diploma and degree above this, it was 91 percent. Whereas the exposure to screen time in children of post-graduate mothers was 80 percent.
When do children use phones the most?
In this study, it was found that 69 percent of the parents let their children use the phone while feeding, while 50 percent of the children are influenced to use the phone after seeing their siblings. How much phones children use also depends on the financial condition of the family. The study found that children living below the poverty line generally had very little screen time because they did not have smartphones.
Effect of family structure
In this study it was also found that how much time the child is spending on the mobile screen…family structure also plays an important role in this. The study says that children who live in nuclear families, i.e. nuclear families, have 78 percent phone exposure, whereas children who live in joint families spend up to 91 percent time on phones. The data of the study was collected by Dr. Ranjitha under the supervision of Dr. Jeena of the Department of Community Medicine, the report of which was submitted to Kollam District Medical Officer M.S. Anu.