2023-09-24 18:00:00
September 24, 2023, 12:00 – Updated September 24, 2023, 12:15
Although we have all heard the recommendations regarding Do not expose children to screens for excessive amounts of time, it seems impossible to keep real control of how much time they use their devices. However, the problems that this lack of regulation can bring continue to be discovered by pediatricians. Some associations such as OMS have proposed guides for parents that help organize their activities in settings that are more friendly to children’s health.
In recent years, the use of electronic devices has become common in all homes, where there are more screens than family members, since each person has their own smartphone, in addition to televisions and computer monitors. And outside the home things are no different. Screens are everywhere.
If screens were already part of everyday life since the beginning of the last decade, with the coronavirus pandemic They became indispensable. Health restrictions forced us to look for new ways to maintain our activities, and screens were the solution: through our smartphones, tabletslaptops and televisions we work, study and socialize.
Although the pandemic is behind us, the integration of technology does not seem to have taken the same path, but rather everything otherwise. There are more and more activities in which the use of an electronic device is a requirementfrom schoolwork, games, virtual meetings with friends.
It is difficult to establish a middle point between the excessive use of screens, since the social conditions and needs of each family are different. But there is something on which all research agrees. Screens should be prohibited before the age of two.
Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Mexican Association of Psychotherapy and Education presented reports derived from the increase in the use of screens that the pandemic left. In addition, the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) launched the Plan Digital Familiara platform where family leaders can enter to find the best way to set healthy limits for screen time according to your particular needs.
AGE
SCREEN TIME PER DAY
RECOMMENDATIONS
0 to 2 years
None
Limit interaction to a minimum. Always supervised. With reduced brightness. In well-lit spaces. Just see, don’t touch screens.
3 to 5 years
Less than an hour in total.
Short periods. Supervised. Quality content. In illuminated spaces.
6 to 9 years
One hour straight maximum. Two hours in total.
Intersperse with physical activities. Accompanied. Monitored devices and content.
10 to 14 years
One hour straight maximum. Three hours in total.
Finish two hours before bed. Promote its responsible use. Monitored devices and content.
15 to 17 years
Two hours in a row maximum.
Finish two hours before bed. Monitored devices and content.
Las research of the 2019 WHO show that remaining sedentary for a long time can generate serious physical health problems of the kids. If we add to this that they will spend this time in front of a screen, the effects also extend to mental and visual health.
Since the pandemic, children spent up to three hours in front of a screen. With parents working (some from home), and the little ones taking classes remotely and not being able to go out to play, there were cases in which the time they spent with their devices, which was already excessive before the pandemic, doubled following the confinement.
“The digital world, tablets, television, smartphones, have an impact on the health not only of children and adolescents, but also throughout life. Among them attention difficulties, sleep problems, eating problems and decreased physical activity,” warns María Salmerón Ruiz, coordinator of the Digital Health working group of the AEP Health Promotion Committee.
Direct blow to neurodevelopment
Likewise, an article from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center found a direct relationship between prolonged screen time and brain development.
It was discovered that children who spend more time in front of a screen have lower structural integrity of the white substance in brain regions that play an important role in language and other emerging literacy skills. It was observed that children with greater exposure to the screen had poorer expressive language and they performed worse on tests of language processing speed, such as quickly naming objects.
Time spent in front of screens desensitizes the brain’s reward system, since stimuli from devices such as video games overstimulate dopamine receptors. similar to how a substance like drugs does. In the long term, receptors require more intense stimuli to obtain these results.
Too much screen causes little sleep
Circadian rhythms follow a 24-hour cycle and respond to light and dark. Screens directly alter these cyclesboth because of the time we spend in front of them, and because of the light they emit.
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the United States, found that Light from electronic devices can confuse biological clocks. This causes sleep disorders and leads to other chronic conditions, such as depression.
It is estimated that, to maintain good brain health, the sleep time in children It goes from 2 to 10 hours, being higher in newborns. Additionally, sleeping at an appropriate time helps keep circadian rhythms stable and healthy.
Added to that, prolonged screen time ends up replacing time for physical activities, which is beneficial for sleeping well. Consequently, circadian rhythms are further altered and health deteriorates more quickly.
The body will pay the bill for several years
Like screen time, the WHO also has recommended physical activity times for each age. And with good reason, The Guide ‘Guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep for children under 5 years of age’ sets out how sedentary lifestyle at an early age not only increases the risk of suffering from physical diseases such as overweight, diabetes and failures in motor development, but also increases the probability of presenting acute illnesses in the future, such as cardiac affections.
It is true that electronic devices are part of daily life, and trying to block their use 100% can end up being detrimental to the development of other aspects of children’s lives. Therefore, all studies emphasize that screens are not the enemy to defeatbut the problem lies, as with many others, in the poor regulation of its use.
Understand the immediate and long-term consequences of excessive use of electronic devices in children It can help parents make an extra effort to reintegrate alternative activities that have fallen into oblivion with the development of technology, such as reading, physical play or quality family time.
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