Harmful effects of mobile phones on children
Harmful Effects of Mobile Phones on Children’s Health
It often happens that we give our phones to children to entertain them. They watch cartoons or listen to music and use the phone as a toy. We underestimate children’s capability of learning things and don’t bother ourselves thinking about how mobile phones can affect their growth of mind. We care less about whether a phone is harmful or not for children’s health. But it's really alarming how phones can affect children's bodies and mind negatively.
Effects of Mobile Phone on Children’s Physical Health
Media use like movie and drama watching, video gameplay, doing everything on mobile, etc., can severely damage the physical condition of children. Different streaming services, gaming apps, and social media can be accessed from mobile phones nowadays. Here are some serious damages mobile phones occur to kids’ bodies:
Sleeping Issue
Cell phones with backlights produce light with short-wavelength, known as blue light. LED lights produce blue light, which is proven to diminish or delay a person's natural synthesis of melatonin at night, as well as lessen sensations of drowsiness.
Children are especially vulnerable to sleep difficulties caused by blue-light-emitting electronic gadgets. Many studies had shown a connection between using screen time before bed and increased sleep latency, which is the average time someone takes to fall asleep. Furthermore, children who are accustomed to using these gadgets at night often do not get enough sleep and feel weary the following day.
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Obesity
Spending more time on phones lessens children's interest to go outside and playing with other playmates. They are being habituated to play on phones and losing the innate nature of venturing outside and doing physical work. It has increased the rate of being obese among children.
Food marketing might also influence dietary choices that lead to children's weight gain. Advertising bombards teenagers' eyes via social media and various streaming videos or music material. Seeing the meal on phones with influencing colors and punchline marketing may elicit an instant desire. Advertising may sometimes be deceptive, conveying signals about a food's healthiness that aren't always true.
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Back and Neck Pain
Pain in the back and neck are caused by strain on a person's spine and is often known as cervical discomfort. Such pain has now become the most prevalent kind in a child's body. The use of devices for extended periods of time adds to each of these problems, resulting in greater discomfort. The constant use of devices contributes the most to the cause of this issue.
Poor posture when sitting, sleeping, studying, or using a smartphone for extended periods of time without changing their position and sitting incorrectly causes neck and back discomfort from a young age. Cervical issues at such a young age are very dangerous since they tend to last a lifetime, impacting the child's gesture for the rest of his or her life if not addressed promptly.
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