Parenting expert Harry Harrison said scientists have found that screen time is like an addiction.
He said the average American child spends about four hours staring at a screen and that amount of time is statistically associated with inferior cognitive development, poor academic performance, are less happy, but more susceptible to ADD and are twice as likely to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression.
“Every moment you spend on a screen is something that the child is not sleeping, reading or exercising. It’s going to take a very brave parent to remove the screens from their kids,” said Harrison. “You don’t know what you’re doing to your children. This is not healthy for them. They need to be reading, they need to outside, they need to be exercising and laughing. But, the problem is kids see their moms doing it.”
He said it’s harder for children with smartphones to make friends face to face.
While, parents are probably worried that their child will become a social outcast if they don’t have a cellphone and all their friends do, Harrison said how can a child be cyberbullied if they’re not online?
Harrison said he wouldn’t put a smartphone in the hands of anyone under the age of 13 because they don’t need connectivity with everything in the world. He would give them a regular phone so they can call family in case of an emergency.