The negative impact of gadgets for children include the potential to cause behavioral disorders, obesity, sleep disorders, and harmful to the brain.
Gadgets, whether it’s mobile phones, tablets, to laptops, are items that are difficult to separate from everyday life. This tool is also familiar to children. From elementary school children to kindergarten though, many have their own gadgets.
Behind the benefits and entertainment they get, do you know that there are many negative effects of gadgets for children?
The dangers of gadgets for children are generally related to their impact on children’s health, both physically and mentally. For example, unrestricted use of smartphones by parents can lead to addiction.
The negative impact of this smartphone certainly has a negative impact on children’s mental health. As a parent, you must be aware of these dangers.
As mentioned earlier, the negative impact of gadgets on children can be seen from two aspects, namely children’s physical and mental health.
Here are some explanations about the negative impact of using gadgets on children on these two aspects.
1. Potential Impact of Gadgets cause behavioral disorders
The dangers of cellphones for children have the potential to cause behavioral disorders. A study in Japan involving 1,642 grade 1 elementary school children tried to find a relationship between the use of smartphone technology and the development of children’s behavior.
The results of this study indicate that the use of gadgets regularly and frequently is associated with behavioral problems in childhood.
The unrestricted use of gadgets also makes children vulnerable to pornography which also has the potential to cause behavioral disorders in children.
2. Potential Impact of Gadgets cause gadget addiction
Reporting from Anadolu Agency (AA), many Indonesian children suffer from mental disorders due to gadget addiction.
AA also reported that gadget addiction was experienced by around 25 percent of patients from the pediatric polyclinic at a hospital in Bogor, West Java, in 2019. As a parent, you need to anticipate the influence of gadgets on this child.
If your child shows the characteristics of gadget addiction, such as excessive use of gadgets every day, angry when asked to stop or have their gadget taken, to show aggressive behavior, you should immediately take the child to a psychologist to find a solution.
3. Potential to experience cyber bullying
Talking about the dangers of cellphones, many people often forget about social media. In fact, this is where all kinds of dangers lurk for children, from the threat of pedophilia to cyber bullying. All of these can take a toll on your child’s mental health.
Therefore, you must explain the negative impact of gadgets on this child so that they can avoid it. You can also turn on the parental control feature to monitor the use of gadgets in children.
4. Potential to cause sleep disturbances
One of the negative effects of playing cellphones for too long for children is the disruption of the little one’s sleep.
Unrestricted use of gadgets can cause children to stay up late, be it playing games, chatting with friends, or accessing social media.
If this condition continues, the child’s physical health can be disrupted. They can get tired easily, feel tired all day, forget easily, and find it difficult to learn.
The negative impact of gadgets on children also triggers various mental problems, such as anxiety and depression.
5. Potential to cause obesity
A study conducted in the United States showed that children who spend time in front of a gadget screen for five hours or more every day, have a greater tendency to consume sugary drinks and rarely do physical activity.
The study found that children who used gadgets on a daily basis had a 43 percent increased risk of obesity, compared to children who did not use gadgets at all.
You need to be aware of the negative impacts of using HP or other gadgets. If allowed to continue, it is not impossible obesity can occur and threaten the health of children.
6. Potentially harmful to the child’s brain
The human brain is considered sensitive to electromagnetic radiation so that items that emit electromagnetic waves such as gadgets are considered dangerous, especially for children.
Electromagnetic waves emitted by gadgets are considered to be able to interfere with children’s brain activity so that it has a negative impact on their learning abilities and has the potential to cause behavioral disorders.
Parents need to consider the various positive and negative impacts of gadgets on children. This is done so that they can take advantage of the gadget and avoid its negative impact.
If your child is already addicted to gadgets or the habit of using the gadget can’t be stopped, you should take them to a child psychologist to get the right treatment.