Mobile phones and children: knowing what to do age by age
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Loading... - Naciri Adam
- 21 Feb 2023
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The use of mobile phones by children is a recurring question for parents. One wonders at what age are they ready (physically, emotionally, cognitively, emotionally?) to use a smartphone or tablet? Above all, we want our children not to develop a digital addiction and to do so, we must establish rules of good behavior age by age with screens. Here are our tips for introducing children to digital so that they do not develop bad habits.
Zineb refused to give her daughter, Sara, a phone for as long as possible. Then, for her 13th birthday, she received a smartphone as a gift from her godfather. She was the last of her friends to have her own phone. To explain this refusal, Zineb says that she did not want the massive use of screens to absorb her daughter’s life too much. And now that she got her smartphone, Sara is on her phone a lot, constantly messaging Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp.
Sara’s parents fear a phenomenon of digital addiction for their daughter, which deprives her of doing other activities that she previously enjoyed.
This example illustrates the discomfort that parents can feel on the issue of the telephone and the child. Does this mean that children should be prevented from having a telephone, or more broadly, from approaching screens. The answer is obviously no. Today, digital is everywhere. It has become part of our habits and accompanies us in many of our daily activities.
To prevent your child from using screens is to cut him off from part of society. It is not for nothing that we are talking about a new phenomenon: “Digital exclusion” for the most deprived. A study by Morocco Times TV showed that the average age of the first mobile phone among young Moroccans was 11 years old. We must therefore help them from an early age to understand this new tool and support them so that they learn to use it well.
As we teach our children to behave well in society, we must show them how to use and behave well with a smartphone, on the internet and on the various applications and social networks that they are very fond of. But all of this is learned step by step.
From 4 to 6 years old
It is strongly recommended that young children avoid using telephones and other mobile devices. As for exposure to screens, such as television, it should be less than an hour a day for children 2 to 5 years old. And for children under 2 years old, they should not be exposed to screens at all.
It should be understood that the use of smartphones from an early age harms the proper development of the brain. Mobile devices quickly accustom the brain to their use through the production of dopamine, better known as the pleasure hormone. The constant stimulation of the brain, generated by the screens causes “cerebral shocks”. This results in a phenomenon of rapid dependence in the little ones. Read More…
