‘The Screen-demic’: The doctor who’s seen so much smartphone harm to kids he’s coined a new phrase

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Child development experts are encouraging parents to switch their children's screen time for sunshine over the school summer holidays this year, in favour of benefits like better sleep, greater attention spans and improved mood.

Transcript

00:00I am seeing so much of it that I have coined a phrase, a term called the screendemic, which

00:08is an epidemic of mental health illness in children and young people and early development

00:15language communication problems in younger children, secondary to access to screen time

00:20and social media use. So yes, it is a very big problem for children and families.

00:26There's good side and a bad side to technology, I suppose, like with many things. Looking

00:30at some of the research, can you tell us a bit more about the impact of smartphone use?

00:34You know, is it all as bad as it might seem?

00:3730% of children and young people spend four to five hours each and every day on screens

00:44and social media apps. Now that equates to an addiction and that is very, very serious.

00:49So what are we seeing at different ends of the age spectrum? As a paediatrician, I'm

00:54now seeing non-verbal children coming to my clinic, walking in, toddlers walking with

00:59normal mobility, but they don't say a word because they're spending most of their waking

01:04hours in front of a screen. They're not hearing language, they're not hearing vocabulary from

01:08parents and family and friends, etc. So they're not learning language. Primary school teachers

01:13are telling me exactly the same thing. This is what they're seeing. Their development,

01:18their motor development is also delayed because they're just stuck in one position for most

01:21of the day. The other end of the spectrum, older children, we're seeing lots of mental

01:26health difficulties, which is why I've called it the screen-demic. Massive increase in anxiety

01:32and depression, secondary, and that's what the research is telling us, secondary and

01:36linked to excessive screen time. Inattention, poor sleep, lethargy, poor performance at

01:44school, and just being distant from family. Normal family dynamic interaction has changed.

01:53The way youngsters are communicating with others has changed.

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