As adults, we are constantly switching between working on a computer, checking our phones, watching TV in the evening — sometimes even playing on a tablet at the same time.
Children are picking up on this behavior, with screen time among children increasing. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that children aged 8–10 spend, on average, 6 hours per day in front of a screen. At ages 11–14, this increases to nearly 9 hours a day. A new study from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) suggests that screens may have critical effects on a child’s development when they begin using them at an early age. The results of study showed that children who began using any screen media (including television, computers, smartphones, and tablets) earlier in life had lower self-regulation abilities. The results showed that this was also true of those who currently used mobile devices (smartphones or tablets or both) more than others in the cohort. Surprisingly, the researchers found exposure to traditional devices, such as television and computers, was not related to self-regulation. They say this may be because messages to provide more child-friendly educational content on TV and warning parents to monitor what their children watch have been effective. It is also likely that the fixed nature of a television and a desktop computer causes less harm than a mobile device, which a person can take anywhere.
(credits: www.medicalnewstoday.com)
