Toddlers vulnerable to smartphone addiction

A 29-month-old girl plays an animation video clip on her mother’s iPhone at her home in Seoul. Parents are worried about their children’s exposure to smartphones.

Parents’ ‘best nanny’ emerges as major concern
 
Many infants these days learn how to play games on their parents’ smartphones even before they learn to walk or crawl.

In their curious eyes, games and apps on smartphones and tablet PCs are often far more tempting than other toys — they can’t take their eyes off them, if left alone with the high-tech toys.

Parents sometimes use the devices for their kids’ education, showing them language-learning apps, for example.

But in most cases, they use the gadgets as “nannies” because they can take a rest or do things other than babysitting while the infants are watching sing-along shows, fairytales, or playing games.

“I had my boy playing with my phone while I was watching my favorite soap opera for about an hour for two days a week. About a month later, I was surprised, in a positive way, after finding out the 18-month-old use the phone very well, thinking he may be an IT prodigy. But several weeks later, I was taken aback again, in a negative way this time, as he was not letting the phone go,” said Kim Jeong-hwa, a 35-year-old office worker.

Not only Kim but other mothers are concerned that their kids are exposed to greater risks of “addiction to smartphones,” with the age of affected children getting younger.

A blogger with a 21-month-old boy expressed her concern over her son who seems to be addicted to her smartphone.

“I downloaded several children’s apps, such as nursery songs and fairytales, and he wants to use them all day long. I’m not usually together with him when he plays with the phone, as I allow him to use it when I have to do something else like household chores,” the blogger named “ilgumom” said on an online community.

She said while watching Pororo the Little Penguin animation clips on the phone, the boy concentrates so much that he refuses to eat.

Concerns over side effects

Many parents worry about such addiction, but say they can’t help letting the infants use the devices because it is almost the only way to soothe their babies.

“In restaurants these days, we hardly see children crying or running around tables because when they are about to do so, their parents give them smartphones and they become quiet, being immersed in the small screens. In that way, parents can finish their meal without sweating to soothe the infants. But sometimes it is eerie when watching such little children not talking with their parents but only focusing on the devices,” said Jang Yoon-jeong, who has 26-month-old nephew.

As it has been only a couple of years for such devices to come into wide use, their side effects have not been studied much though a quick temper and lack of concentration have been cited.

Especially when it comes to infant users, there has been almost no such research because it is almost impossible to interview them and the effects of the new phenomenon will come out years later.

A head of a children’s counseling center said she hasn’t had an infant who visits the center because of smartphone addiction yet but some children coming for other reasons have problems related to the addiction.

“Parents don’t know the seriousness of problems the addiction may bring. Infanthood is a period when babies grow by touching objects, experiencing things through their five senses and sharing their emotion with parents. But when using smartphones, they are exposed to the content in the devices only, so the phones obstruct them in developing the ability to empathize with others, cognitive power and linguistic ability,” Kim Mi-young, chief of Irara Child Development Institute, said.

She said children who are exposed to such devices for a long time have a higher chance of becoming game addicts when they get older.

According to a recent experiment conducted by a local broadcaster, the right frontal lobe of a child immersed in a smartphone became less active — such inactivity of the brain is easily seen among children having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Kim also noted that if an infant is addicted to such a device, it means he or she has some emotional emptiness.

“If a child clings to a phone, the parents should check whether the child is emotionally happy and full, or is stressed. If it is the latter, they should try to have the child feel more affection,” she said.

But she said smartphone use is not always bad because some apps are educational. “But even when using educational apps, parents should be aware of the side effects and monitor the use closely, as well as set an appropriate time limit.” <Korea Times/Kim Rahn>