United News of Bangladesh

In today’s hyper-connected world, children are growing up with screens as constant companions—scrolling, sharing, and seeking approval online. While social media offers scopes of connection and creativity, its darker effects often go unnoticed. Minor shifts in behaviour, mood, and daily habits may indicate underlying emotional distress. Recognising these early warning signs is crucial to safeguarding kids’ mental health and overall well-being. Let’s look closely at the red flags that social media-addicted children may reveal, which is more than just screen fatigue. 7 Red Flags That Signal Social Media Affects Your Child’s Mental Wellbeing . Irritability, Anger, Anxiety, and Depression Emotional turbulence is often one of the first signs that social networks are impacting a child’s mental well-being. A child who once handled challenges with calm may suddenly snap over minor inconveniences—like being asked to pause their screen time. This shift is more than a passing phase. Excessive digital platform exposure can condition a kid’s brain to expect instant gratification. Consequently, it gets difficult to tolerate delays or engage in slower-paced activities like reading or studying. The flood of fast, dopamine-triggering content rewires emotional responses, often replacing patience with frustration. As a result, parents might find their child increasingly restless, easily angered, and emotionally unbalanced even outside the screen. Read more: How to Keep Your Baby Comfortable and Healthy While Using Air Conditioner or Cooler Losing Track of Time When children spend long hours online, it’s easy for them to lose a sense of time. What often begins as a quick scroll can spiral into hours of passive consumption, especially on apps designed to encourage endless engagement. This disconnection from time awareness can quietly lead to neglect of daily responsibilities such as homework, family interactions, or personal hygiene. The 2025 report from Common Sense Media reveals that children under 8 now spend an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes each day engaging with screen-based media. TikTok dominates their screen time with nearly two hours a day, making it the top platform among this age group. These numbers point to a growing trend where time management skills erode as children become immersed in the virtual world. Social Withdrawal As children spend more time scrolling through digital feeds, their connection with real-world interactions often begins to fade. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, in his book The Anxious Generation (2024), likens social media to a firehose of addictive content. It displaces physical activity and in-person play—fundamental elements of healthy childhood development. Read more: Summer Tips for School-going Children Children using online media for three or more hours a day often avoid eye contact and struggle to express emotions clearly. Moreover, they speak in incomplete sentences during face-to-face interactions. For instance, a child who once eagerly engaged in family dinners might now retreat to their room, avoiding conversation entirely. This pattern of withdrawal isn’t shyness-—it’s discomfort, shaped by a digital world that rarely demands verbal or emotional expression. Misguided Self-esteem Virtual communities often act as distorted mirrors, shaping how children perceive their worth. Constantly exposed to highlight reels of peers’ lives, many begin to question their own value. According to ElectroIQ's Social Media Mental Health Statistics, 52% of users report feeling worse about their lives after seeing friends’ posts. 43% of teenagers admit feeling pressure to post content, driven by the hope of gaining likes or comments. Read more: How to Protect Children from Electric Shocks This chase for validation can have serious consequences. Children may develop body image issues or body dissatisfaction, comparing themselves to edited or filtered content. To gain approval online, they might resort to risky behaviour. For example, a teen might post provocative or reckless videos for attention and digital praise. Losing Attention in Offline Tasks Children nowadays are increasingly struggling to stay focused on tasks that require sustained concentration, like reading, studying, or completing chores. SambaRecovery's report highlighted that children’s average attention span is only 29.61 seconds. Over time, this figure showed a significant 27.41% decline during the continuous performance test. This trend mirrors parental concerns- 79% of parents, as cited by Common Sense Media 2025, fear that heavy screen exposure is eroding their child's ability to concentrate. This erosion is often visible in daily life. Constant notifications, videos, and scrolling content condition young minds to crave quick bursts of stimulation. It makes slow, offline tasks feel dull and unrewarding. Over time, this affects not just academics but also a child’s overall cognitive stamina and productivity. Read more: Parenting a Teenager? 10 Tips to be Their Best Friend Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) This is a powerful psychological driver that affects emotional health and can be especially damaging. This feeling stems from the perception that others are enjoying experiences, events, or interactions without them. It's amplified through the constant visibility of others’ lives online. For example, a kid might see classmates hanging out without him/her, sparking feelings of exclusion, sadness, or even jealousy. These emotions, although silently endured, can create deep emotional turbulence. FOMO intensifies anxiety and self-doubt, fuelling compulsive social network checking as children try to stay “in the loop” at all times. Increased Secrecy and Refusal to Go Outside When children begin to maintain excessive secrecy, it’s often a red flag that something deeper is affecting their well-being. If your child has previously been open but suddenly becomes reluctant to share details about their day or their online activities, it could signal emotional distress. Secrecy often indicates that they are hiding something troubling, like exposure to cyberbullying or other online dangers. According to social media mental health statistics, 87% of teens report being cyberbullied. Notably, 36.4% of girls report being affected by online harassment, compared to 31.4% of boys. Read more: The Importance of Instilling Leadership Skills in Your Child This constant exposure to negativity can cause children to avoid going outside, preferring the perceived safety of digital spaces. Over time, this behaviour can lead to a loss of trust and emotional isolation, as children avoid engaging in conversations. Wrapping Up These 7 warning signs reflect social media's negative impact on children's mental and emotional health. Excessive screen time can cause them to lose track of time and decrease their attention span, neglecting important tasks and responsibilities. Over time, this often results in social withdrawal. The constant comparison to others online fosters misguided self-esteem and worsens their mental well-being. Furthermore, children may struggle with FOMO, which heightens their feelings of inadequacy. As they struggle with these emotions, many develop increased secrecy, distancing themselves from the real world. All of these factors contribute to heightened emotional distress, often manifesting as irritability, anger, anxiety, and depression. Read more: Bullying in School: How to Protect Children and Deal with the Issue

Every parent knows that kids might get sick occasionally. When a kid gets ill with the flu, pains, injuries, or viral diseases, s/he may miss going to school or playing outdoors with playmates. If the illness continues for several days, it can make the child unhappy, sad and bored. However, not many parents think about how to keep an unwell child cheerful.  Some parents tend to keep ill children busy with gadgets. During ailment, electric gadgets, like phones, tablets, or TVs can be more harmful to children. Now, except for allowing gadgets what can parents do to entertain an ill child at home? Here are some tips. 10 best tips to entertain an ailing child without screen time New Toy Your child could have many toys at any time during their growing time. But, a new toy can bring it joy, especially during sickness. Pick a toy that your kind would love the most to possess. It will make the child happy and give it a feeling of appreciation, which can aid in the recovery process. Besides, the small gift will rekindle your kid’s love for you.  Read Best foods for expecting mothers Crafts Seek out various options to entertain your unwell child. You can engage the kid in various crafts such as drawing origami, skill with clay, and creating crafts to decorate our rooms. It is a good idea to set up a table containing recycled paper, where you and your kid can draw or create origami together.  Such activities will not only help the child stay at home without getting bored; but also develop its imagination power. Thus, your kid can have a lot of fun. It will help the kid to overcome illnesses in a much more relaxing manner.  Indoor Games When your child is sick, it is best to assist them in resting. When they feel bored staying at home for days due to illness, you can play different low-stress, indoor games with them. The types of games can vary depending on the age of your child.  Read How to deal with your demanding child? If your child is below 5, you can play puzzle games with them or engage them in imaginary cooking games with their playing instruments. Children above 5 may like to play ludo or carom and you can accompany them. Besides puzzles, baby cooking games, ludo, or carom, you can play traditional board or table games with your sick child to give him/her companionship and entertainment. You can also create board or table games to have a fun time.  These indoor games can provide an abundance of entertainment for a child who is too ill to go outside for playing with friends. Parents and other family members can also join the ailing child and play games together to enjoy a leisurely afternoon of fun at home. Read Top brain foods for studying and exams Reading When a child is sick, s/he may feel lonely or helpless. To make the kid happy you can engage him/her in a creative task like reading. If your child is unable to read, you can read for him or her. When your child can read, you can lend him/her a book and inspire him/her to read. Reading books helps children to spark their imagination and give the parents a chance to spend quality time with them in a fun way. You can pick colorful story books, a rhyme, or a novel so that your child feels an attraction to read or listen to stories from you. If you enjoy reading, they will be happy and relaxed. However, make sure you choose the books that they would love to read or hear from you.  Practice Language If your child is not much tired and getting better, you can play with them with language. For instance, you can give your school-goer kid a list of phrases and ask them to draw the definition of each word.  Read How physical punishment affects children and alternative ways to discipline them You can ask your under-five kid to sing his/her favorite songs to tell the names of different body parts or to express their favorite foods in English or other different languages. By engaging in these activities, your kids will have a great time without gadgets while staying at home. 

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday paved the way for children ages 5 to 11 to get Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA cleared kid-size doses — just a third of the amount given to teens and adults — for emergency use, and up to 28 million more American children could be eligible for vaccinations as early as next week. One more regulatory hurdle remains: On Tuesday, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make more detailed recommendations on which youngsters should get vaccinated, with a final decision by the agency’s director expected shortly afterwards. “The rationale here is protect your children so that they can get back towards normal life,” said FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks. “The tremendous cost of this pandemic has not just been in physical illness, it’s been in the psychological, the social development of children” too. Also read: Merck agrees to let other drug makers make its COVID pill A few countries have begun using other COVID-19 vaccines in children under 12, including China, which just began vaccinations for 3-year-olds. But many that use the vaccine made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are watching the U.S. decision, and European regulators just began considering the companies' kid-size doses. With FDA's action, Pfizer plans to begin shipping millions of vials of the pediatric vaccine — in orange caps to avoid mix-ups with the purple-capped doses for everyone else — to doctors' offices, pharmacies and other vaccination sites. Once the CDC issues its ruling, eligible kids will get two shots, three weeks apart. While children are at lower risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 than older people, 5- to 11-year-olds still have been seriously affected -- including over 8,300 hospitalizations, about a third requiring intensive care. The FDA said 146 deaths have been reported in that age group. And with the extra-contagious delta variant circulating, the government has counted more than 2,000 coronavirus-related school closings just since the start of the school year, affecting more than a million children. “With this vaccine kids can go back to something that’s better than being locked at home on remote schooling, not being able to see their friends,” said Dr. Kawsar Talaat of Johns Hopkins University. “The vaccine will protect them and also protect our communities.” The American Academy of Pediatrics also applauded FDA’s decision, and said pediatricians were “standing by” to talk with parents. Also read: US financing body, Biological E finalise agreement to expand COVID manufacturing capabilities in India Vaccinating this age group is “an important step in keeping them healthy and providing their families with peace of mind,’’ said Dr. Lee Savio Beers, the academy’s president. Earlier this week, FDA's independent scientific advisers voted that the pediatric vaccine's promised benefits outweigh any risks. But several panelists said not all youngsters will need to be vaccinated, and that they preferred the shots be targeted to those at higher risk from the virus. Nearly 70% of 5- to 11-year-olds hospitalized for COVID-19 in the U.S. have other serious medical conditions, including asthma and obesity, according to federal tracking. Additionally, more than two-thirds of youngsters hospitalized are Black or Hispanic, mirroring long-standing disparities in the disease's impact. The question of how broadly Pfizer's vaccine should be used will be a key consideration for the CDC and its advisers, who set formal recommendations for pediatricians and other medical professionals. A Pfizer study of 2,268 schoolchildren found the vaccine was nearly 91% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infections, based on 16 cases of COVID-19 among kids given dummy shots compared to just three who got vaccinated. The FDA ultimately assessed more children — 3,100 — who received the kid dosage to conclude it was safe. Youngsters experienced similar or fewer temporary reactions — such as sore arms, fever or achiness — that teens experience. But the study wasn’t large enough to detect any extremely rare side effects, such as the heart inflammation that occasionally occurs after the second full-strength dose, mostly in young men and teen boys. It's unclear if younger children getting a smaller dose also will face that rare risk. FDA pledged Friday to keep a close watch. Some parents are expected to vaccinate their children ahead of family holiday gatherings and the winter cold season. Laura Cushman of Salt Lake City plans to get her three children — ages 7, 9 and 11 — vaccinated as soon as possible. “We just want them to get to resume their pre-COVID life a little bit more. And feel safe about it,” she said. But a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey suggests most parents won't rush to get the shots. About 25% of parents polled earlier this month said they would get their children vaccinated “right away.” But the remaining majority of parents were roughly split between those who said they will wait to see how the vaccine performs and those who said they “definitely” won't have their children vaccinated. The similarly made Moderna vaccine also is being studied in young children, and both Pfizer and Moderna also are testing shots for babies and preschoolers.

Dhaka, Aug 22 (AP/UNB) -Parents and teachers know that reading to their children in preschool and kindergarten is important. But how can parents and teachers support young children’s mathematics knowledge?