Children and Smart Phones: Assessing Relationships, Reasonings and Outcomes

We stagger.

We stumble.

We fall.

Yet, the rectangular blue light before us fails to hobble.

Smartphones can take us all for a spin.

It appears as though we spend more time with our smartphones than we would ever care to spend with another human being. We don’t need a peer-reviewed study from Google Scholar to tell us that. Just as we don’t need it to tell us how smartphones have become an intrinsic part of our children’s lives.

Mobile devices are gaining unmet traction with kids and young adolescents. This poses an unprecedented problem to many parents who are not sure when it is appropriate for kids to have a phone. Unlike other parenthood dilemmas, parents of today don’t have the choice to look back and see how their parents handled this issue due to one simple reason: the problem just did not exist back then. It’s as new as it gets.

Smartphones seem to have taken up their own unique new-fangled identity in our society. An identity defined by independence, trendiness and entertainment more than it does with utility.

Owning a smartphone now is a status symbol.

It is a statement.

A statement that has become a huge part of people’s sense of identity.

Not unlike adults, kids are glued to their screens 24/7. They use their phones for everything from watching movies, to being socially active, play games and even for educative purposes. A look at their daily screen time would reveal staggering numbers. However, in their defence, I believe screen time is just a shameful secret that we should all just quietly bury in a dark hushed corner of our devices, adults and children alike. Who needs the numbers? Maths sucks, anyway.

Ironically, the next bit of this article is going to talk about just that: Numbers.

According to research, one in four children and young adolescents could have problematic smartphone use which could be leading to poorer mental health. The results suggest more than 23% of the kids have a dysfunctional relationship with their smartphones and it might upsettingly be affecting their mental health.

“It seems like a substantial minority of teenagers and young people from various different countries are self-reporting a pattern of behaviour that we recognise from other addictions,” says Dr Nicola of King’s College London, co-author of the study. “The quality of the evidence is poor, but it is enough to warrant further investigation.”

While the frequency with which the device is used might not be a direct contributing factor to poor mental health, it exposes the vulnerable young minds to a wealth of content, not all of which is in their best interests. For parents, this is worrying because as soon as a child owns a smartphone, it is difficult to monitor what kind of content their child is consuming at all hours of the day.

If we were to follow this addictive routine, we would see a pattern emerging. A pattern that would reveal another frightening reality: our kids wouldn’t have a clue what to do without their phones.

In a survey that involved 2,167 children aged 5 to 16 year old from the UK, 57% of them admitted they did not know what they would do if they were to lose their phones, and that they always sleep with their phones by their bedsides.

This indicates a steep decrement in productivity since every kid is immersed in their phone, enough to not care about doing much else. It also results in reduced concentration levels because they are now used to being constantly delighted and tantalized with all the content available online.

But if you were to raise the question of not giving phones to kids until they are much older, how do you think would the parents respond?

The response would be a resounding NO.

Because as much as we like to disparage it, technology is going to swoop in like a vulture with its unbeatable advantages and leave us as clueless as when we started. It’ll make us try to reason with ourself-

‘But I don’t want my child to feel left out.’

‘What if basketball practice ended a little early today?’

‘But what would happen in case of an emergency?’

‘Imagine sending my young teen for a drive on his own without being able to GPS track him. Preposterous!’

‘How else would they do their homework if they don’t have the internet? I suck at Math!!!’

These are all genuine concerns … especially the last one.

And this sense of security, safety, and convenience is the very reason why we are in this sticky situation.

While these issues might seem insurmountable, with experience and combined effort, we can take appropriate steps in the right direction. Before equipping a young child with a phone, parents should communicate the responsibility it comes with handling a smartphone, the risks it puts them at and the precautions they need to take. Appropriate limitations and curfews should be put in place by parents so as not to suffer the consequences of their child having free reign over his electronic devices. Many smartphone manufacturers are now introducing parental control options on their devices too, which could come in handy in these situations.

At the end of the day, it’s up to the parents to decide whether their child gets a phone or not.

Or is it?

The illusion of choice is a pill every parent has to swallow eventually.