Mobiles have evolved into smartphones with technology change and have become a part of everyone’s life. The availability of smartphones led to attraction in children to look for gaming and entertainment in smartphones however the long usage of these smartphones by children led to addiction in the majority of children.
There are several surveys found mental health issues among children who started using smartphones at a young age.
Here we are going to provide the survey details about the children who used their smartphones at a young age.
Sapien Labs Mental Health Smartphone Survey:
The latest survey from Sapien labs which is very common to the surveys found across the world conducted to know the cause of mental health issues. The results are not surprising as the cause of mental health issues is the usage of smartphones at a young age in the majority of cases. This survey was conducted among adults who are facing mental health issues between the age of 18 – 24 years across 40 nations. In total, the survey was conducted on 29,969 adults with 4000 adults from India including both men and women.
The results showed that mental well-being parameters declined consistently among the adults who started using smartphones at the earliest age with women being the most affected. The survey showed that mental health decreased to 61% in those who started using smartphones by 10 years of age and 52% in those who started using before 15 years of age. These adults were experiencing mental health issues like aggression, suicidal thoughts, feeling hallucinations and loneliness.
Smartphone Side Effects In Children:
All these factors should not be either high or low but should be normal which determines whether mental health condition is stable or not. The survey just showed the relativity of the age of children using mobiles to the mental health issues in adults. However, this does not happen with all adults as they might come out of the effect of using smartphones at a young age due to the best suitable surroundings.
The effect of using smartphones at a young age depends on the time spent and the type of activity on smartphones which are the main cause of health issues and even many children are affected at a young age by addiction towards the activities on smartphones.
This affects the thought process of the children which includes factors like ideology, creativity and thinking. This leads to a decrease in IQ level which impacts mental health quality. Smartphones can be used by children but they should be very limited with good parental guidance over activities on smartphones according to the age.
What Factors Were Considered In the Survey:
The mental health quality is measured among the factors of
- MOOD&OUTLOOK- determines anxiety and mood swings.
- SOCIAL SELF- shows cooperation towards others and self-worth.
- ADAPTABILITY&RESILIENCE-explains adaptability and ability to learn and change
- DRIVE&MOTIVATION- talks about addictions and motivations
- COGNITION- memory-focused activities like decision-making, thoughts and hallucinations
- MIND-BODY CONNECTION – factors contributing to mental health with show effect on physical health like sleep quality and appetite.
3 Easy Tips to Stop Child Phone Addiction:
- Regulate the use of smartphones: – Set a strong limit for the usage of smartphones with a parental guide in smartphones that supports setting timelines, tracks activities done by children and even supports disabling unnecessary apps. Keep children engaged in other activities like creative learning and sports along with spending time with children.
- Restrict the use of smartphones:- Children often tend to be attracted to smartphones for gaming and entertainment so provide them with the best alternatives like watching television and outdoor games and make time for children for active communication.
- Reduce the usage of smartphones:- Many things children do are learnt from either friends or family members which shows the huge impact on children. Less usage of smartphones in front of children or giving smartphones to children with strong limitations shows some good signs in children and doesn’t attract or become addicted to smartphones.
Anything excess or less shows a negative impact so make sure that children are in control if the smartphone is provided to children at any cost for a better future.
Conclusion:
Children are unaware of the effects caused by using smartphones at a young age so the parents need to be very cautious about handing over smartphones to children. At least the parents can restrict the activities in smartphones when the children are using them by setting limitations to the usage.
Every smartphone has an option for parental guidance in settings which can be enabled while given to children. The main cause of mental health issues like stress, anxiety, depression etc., in the majority of adults is due to the usage of smartphones at a young age where the IQ level is low which leads to provocative thoughts. It is better to avoid the excessive usage of smartphones among children by a huge margin except for necessary activities.
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