Turn off the screen and get active. This is easy to say and hard to achieve. In recent years, kids have developed the habit of watching TV most of the time. Almost every kid has a digital screen in the form of a mobile phone or iPad. They love to watch cartoons and are not interested in playing outside. They want to play video games more than physical play. Kids ages 8-18 spend an average of 7.5 hours of screen each day. Tragedy is six months old babies are watching the screen too. 40 per cent of 3-month-old infants are watching TV or videos. That is an alarming situation.
Causes
- The main reason is financial pressure. Because of this, parents are utilising screens to divert their children. Parents are role models. They are also busy on their phones even after work. Mothers are forced to eat through phones. The tension of household chores makes them do so. Financial instability and career goals restrain them from spending time with their kids.
- Children now have easier access to screens thanks to the growing availability of gadgets like game consoles, PCs, tablets, and cellphones, which have increased screen usage.
- The move to online learning has made more screen time necessary for learning.
- Children may resort to screens for entertainment if there are fewer options for outside play or extracurricular activities because of safety concerns and academic pressure.
Effects
Too much screen time is causing so much trouble. Children's worsening eyesight is an example. Excessive screen time makes eyes dry and strain. It may also result in visual impairment and retinal damage. Obesity, sleep problems, chronic neck and back pain and anxiety are also common.
Poor academic performance is the biggest problem. Speech problems are very common among toddlers. The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew.
An excessive amount of openness to savagery through media can desensitize youngsters to viciousness. Therefore, youngsters could figure out how to acknowledge fierce ways of behaving as a typical method for tackling issues.
Limited screen time
Cartoons are important from an educational point of view. Watching cartoons is not bad, but it should be started at a proper age. Cartoons teach shapes, colours and numbers. Kids learn different languages from cartoons. From a learning point of view, they are effective. But important is to limit their screen time.
Solution
- Parents should encourage their kids to play outside. Take them to the parks. Play with them.
- The parents must provide them with the right content. Encourage them to watch educational and learning content.
- They should try to eat at the table with family and turn off the TV. Keep them engaged through stories. At the end of the story ask them questions like what you like about the story or how was the end.
- There should be no screen time for children younger than two years. Not more than one hour per day for ages 2.5 years. Children should have more time to play.
- Provide them with blocks, puzzles , drawing books and coloured pencils. This will enable them to stay occupied.
- Whenever the situation allows, watch programs together and discuss what you see, for example, family values, viciousness or illicit drug use. On the off chance that you see a low-quality food promotion, making sense of that since it's on television doesn't mean it's great for you.
- Parents ought to set screen time limits for themselves. Children will feel inspired and follow them in this way.
Conclusion
It tends to be hard to begin restricting your kid's screen time. Notwithstanding, it merits the work. By making new family rules and consistently rolling out little improvements in your kid's everyday practice, you can control screen time and its likely impacts. Parents may encourage responsible screen time by communicating with their children and putting these recommendations into practice. Sometimes parents need to occupy children through screen time to do chores and work from home, but that should be in limit.
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