With the rise of smartphone technology, many parents are letting their children use their smartphones. While it may seem to be harmless, the benefits of letting children use smartphones can be argued. Smartphones can have an impact on a child’s development. Children should not have smartphones due to the impact they have on a child’s development.
Before smartphones, what did children do for fun? Kids used to spend their free time playing outdoors with their friends. This is where children learned to interact with others. They made friends, and used their imagination to have fun. Children didn’t require devices to stay entertained, they had to have fun with others.
With the availability of smartphones, children are becoming familiar with them at a very early age. This leads parents to feel like they can cause their children to have social problems by using the devices too much or to be harassed for not using smart devices. This leaves some parents in between a rock and a hard place. (Craig)
Smartphones prohibit children from socially interacting. Children who use their parent’s smartphones for playing games miss out on opportunities to interact with others. Children can become addicted to the games, this can cause problems later in life when they need social skills.
According to an article by Nina Pilapil, games that are designed for kids can keep them from social interaction. Parents should limit their children’s time spent on a smartphone and encourage them to play with friends instead. While exposure to smartphones is not necessarily a bad thing in small doses, it should be limited and monitored. (Pilapil)
Children are becoming more obese. This is caused in part by a lack of physical activity. Smartphones are one cause of this inactivity. Instead of physical activity in the form of games and playing, children are turning to games on phones for entertainment. Children do not have to necessarily “work out” but rather play some sort of sport or game outside. While smartphones are not the only cause of obesity, limiting the use of smartphones and encouraging physical activity can help the problem.
Children can also damage their eyesight by staring at a screen of a smartphone, and can even harm their brain development. According to Pilapil, staring at a screen for too long can cause damage to a young child’s eyesight and cause severe headaches. Smartphones can also cause a lack of focus. Children learn to jump from topic to topic on smart phones as soon as they become bored. This causes them to lack focus, which can affect their education and work in the future. (Pilapil)
Smartphones can also lead children to view harmful images on the web. BBC reports that one in five children see something that upsets them online ("Parents unaware of smartphone danger.")
While there is truth to the facts stated, some would consider smartphone and tablet technology to be more beneficial than harmful to children. Software Application (app)...
