Smartphone Effects On Children

It is undeniable that we live in digital world accessed by mobile applications using all sorts of digital devices and it also obvious that it is impossible to hide from this new phenomenon. The entire population has become immersed in the digital world, not even children are left out of this new era. In the US, 90% of teenagers, between the ages of 10 and 17, have reported the use of Internet (Mitchell, 2007). It is a fact that using smartphones to access the Internet will allow children to connect with their friends, build social connections and increase their knowledge about the world around them but at the same time, one must not ignore the great risks the use of smartphones can impose on children. In the following paper, the effects

Even though smartphones are electronic devices that do not cause any direct physical harm for its users, it is causing, indirectly, a bunch of unexpected and surprising health problems. While children who should be playing outside with their friends, they are instead spending most of their times playing games or chatting with their friends on their smartphones which is resulting in the upbringing of lazy and less active generation. It is estimated in the US that the youth are spending on average 7.5 hours a day using social media (Rideout, 2010). This sedentary lifestyle is leading to the rising epidemic of obesity in young children causing type 2 diabetes and hypertension (Amanda E. Staiano, 2012). Another main reason for obesity is the marketing of foods and beverages that are high in calories and low in nutritional value (McGinnis, 2006) leading the young generation to make unhealthy

Therefore, scientists conducted studies on the mental health of children who use smartphones and noticed that not only the long hours spent using these devices affected their mental health but also the content to which they were exposed online, without any parental guidance, affected their emotional state (Stanford, 2015). Once children are connected to the internet, they travel in the online world all by themselves and they are exposed to situations that require a certain age limit and high level of maturity which they do not have. Children come face to face with chat rooms, anorexia websites, self-harming websites, violence related websites, pornography and so many more dark places which are leaving them distressed, anxious and troubled (Stanford,