Should parents limit how much time children spend in tech device? Technology Technology is now a part of human's lives in the twenty-first century. The technology now develops and become needs in every people, especially for work people. The uses of technology help human to solve problem and increase work efficiently such as finding a book online and communicate with people who live in distance away. The word technology comes from two Greek words, techne which means art, ar t, skill, craft, manner, while logos means word, an expression or how the thought being sa ying. Children are an individual is anyone under ! according to "# Convention on the $ights $ights of the Child. %rom the article of &oung oung Children and Their nternet "se, "se, children and technology are the children which are like to access to a varie variety ty of onlin onlinee activ activiti ities, es, such such as watc watchin hing g vide videos, os, play playin ing g games, games, search searchin ing g for for information and doing their homework ( )olloway,*.,et al, + . The research from the /uropean Commission (/C shows that, most of the children a re using the internet at younger and younger younger ages.The uses of technology technology also increase every year as the it's easy to get and buy at cheaper prices at the market. n the most family, the parent has children and these children have access to multiple media, such as television and radio in their homes, and half have a television in their bedrooms. 0ost these devices have nternet, and it's become a significant portion has a cell phone and an i1od. /very year, there are increase in number that people 2oining 3#3 like %acebook and 0y3pace. This cause changes the world of electronic media, which cause increase in demand to people to get use it. 3imon 4ary, an editor of 1C 5dvisor present the survey conducted by T6% 1anel on behalf of kids clothing retailer 7ertbaudet.co.uk, some of their parent believe technology are good for their children. There are a few reason that cause that they let the children use tech gadgets is because to make their children become happier,entertainment besides they want their children has a good skills in computer use. 6atest survey that conducted in the year +8 among the , 9ritish's mothers of children aged + to + indicates that !8 percent of moms grant that they are using the technology to keep their children busy meanwhile their parent can doing other things such as cooking and washing the clothes. )owever, this rising trends sparks concerns among experts on should parents limit how much time children spend on tech devices because of the bad effect that will be faced by the children especially on long-term. Therefore, the parent should limit how much time children spend in tech device because excessive usage of tech device can expose a lot of bad impact on children.
There are numerous possible risk when children go online. %irstly, sharing of private information. 0ost parents doesn:t know the children:s online activity as they assume children only playing games and converse to virtual companions , as relatively harmless compared to older children (; online activities due to lack of online monitoring by parents. 5ccording to German research, large amount of children under years of age has their own social network site (3#3 and even own own the social sites. 3#3 have been criticised for their poor default privacy settings, causing children:s private information can be accessed easily by strangers such as identity details, geolocation or home address inside the social media. This can attract strangers with malicious intention and can lead to self danger such as kidnapped, robbery and snatches. 9esides, children can encounter online bullying and expose to the inappropriate content. t makes it harder for children to exchange personal information as virtual worlds usually have filters. Children might undergo difficulties when in real world when they want to share the personal information. 3upposedly, at this children age they should be ready with many skills such critical skill. This skill need to keep them more safe when they interact with the new environment. #ext, possible risk is video viewing sites. The video viewing sites are now latest trend that online activities that carry out by younger children. They many video viewing sites, but commonly children like to view &ouTube site. This is because &ouTube offer many types of entertainment and educational video that fulfill younger children personal happiness. )owever, children might expose to the some of inappropriate content that prefered by adult such as murder, war and violence video. This cause the raising concerns among the parents and society on children safety and development,. The survey that conduct with parents and children among the talian people indicates that their children had watch an inappropriate content on &ouTube (9u<nline report, sometimes the children are bothered with inappropriate clip when they are viewing on &ouTube and Tumblr.
5 study show more than 8 percent of parents let their children spend limitless time on tech devices and nearly one in four kids spend more than three hours a day using digital devices. 5s there is no limitation of time children:s usage on tech devices, the children might be suffering from the side effects of overuse. >ne of the physical effect that children can suffer from the overuse is digital eye strain. t causing the dry and itching eyes, blurred vision, back, neck and shoulder pain? and the worst part of it is headaches. The discomfort felt on eyes is basically due to the time used by children looking at a digital screen with the close to mid-range distance of digital screens including all tech devices. Current studies
shows sleeping problems on children related to the length and timing of screen time on digital screen. This is because the light from digital devices has a higher intensity of blue light than natural light. This blue light will affects levels of the sleep inducing hormone melatonin more than any other wavelength. The experts also warns that electronic devices should be turn off at least an hour before bedtime, because brain are being stimulated before bedtime by playing exciting games 2ust before bedtime is not a good idea. >ur brain are become more effective when we socially interact with the environment cause the brain to stimulates curiosity and exploration thus it takes more time to relax and causing sleep disruption. There is also chances of negative effects on their general progress when children involved with limitless activity on tech devices as it will limits children:s social interaction.
The use of digital media give negative effect on children their life such as increase in hyperactivity and less attention in their activities. The overuse media such as computer and smartphone can cause the lower academic achievement at school. n addition , this excessive use of the digital media may limit the children social interaction. This social interaction help the children to develop their skill and brain development. @hen children are not interact with environment, it is possible that the children undergo the negative development in their brain and the children also might be suffer the negative overall development in their life. 0oreover, the children experience the lower levels of personal contentment and always to keep in trouble when always spending more time on tech devices, They also report feeling more sad or bored as because they only has the tech devices as their only friend compare to virtual friends in real world. Therefore, the digital media reduce the children:s physical activities. The children use to be obese when they like to spending more time on tech devices. 3ome of research states that most of children to be overweight when they like to spend more than four hour a day on screen time. /xcessive use of digital media causing sluggish physical progress on children and increase the chances of getting obese as it restrain reAuired physical challenges to children bodies in order to achieve maximum sensory and motor progress.
The use of tech device also gives good effect on children's health and academic performances. /ven though, this activities need to be monitor by their parents. 9ased on research, the 5merican 5cademy of 1ediatrics, they have developed many recommendations related to child health and development in a variety of areas. t can give good effect to children's health which is can prevent diseases such as 3udden nfant *eath 3yndrome and 5ttention *eficit )yperactivity *isorder. 9esides, it also affects children's
academic
achievement. The early childhood educators understand the significance of digital technologies. This digital technologies tool function as a learning tool to the children which, when used freAuently can promote the language ,cognitive and social development of young children. 3tudies show a positive correlation between smartphone use during early childhood and achievement at school (Cavanaugh et al, +B. 5 large-scale longitudinal study with !,+! kindergartens, first and third-grade children in the "3 found that freAuent use of the internet and proficiency in computer use correlated positively with academic achievementD (4udge et al, +E. This research also stipulates that children mostly likely use a computer at home can increases level in mathematical and readings. The recent study in 5ustralia also shows that the development in vocabulary over F children aged between four and eight years of age, after allowing for socio-economic background and the time the children spent reading, having access to the internet was positively related to verbal abilitiesD (9ittman et al, +, p. E. 9ut, all this activity must be monitor by the parent when their children are using this tech device.The researchers suggested that this parental control by parents on children:s online activities, such as watching the video, playing games and chatting to friend. This is because parents and social commentators are now raising concerns about the ease with which very young children can access age-inappropriate content and sites on unfitting video sites such as on &ouTube and Tumblr.
/ven though, there:s no denying the existing technology does help children, especially students in solving problems and help to get any information Auickly, there a lot of disadvantages that at stake. 1arent should limit the time children spend on tech devices but at the same time be a bit flexible in terms of the time usage of the tech devices. 1arent also have to remember the real danger of the tech devices is actually non educational and leisure screen time other than the bad impact on overall development of the children. 5 few step can be taken such as allow some screen time flexibility to children and explain to the children the bad effect on overuse of tech devices especially social networking sites as it can help children to understand the reason why parent have some restriction. 1arents also can emphasi
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$eferences . &oung children and their internet use, )olloway,*., Green, 6. and 6ivingstone, 3. (+. Hero to eight. &oung children and their internet use. 63/, 6ondonI /" =ids >nline. +. >ffice of the )igh Commissioner for )uman $ights (F!F "# Convention on the $ights of the Child. "nited #ations. . Children and /lectronic 0edia, 5 Collaboration of the @oodrow @ilson 3chool >f 1ublic and nternational 5ffairs at 1rinceton "niversity and The 9rookings nstitutions. B. &oung Children in the *igital 5ge, &ae9in =im, 5rea /xtension 3pecialist, 1arenting /ducation. 8. )ow much screen time is healthy for childrenJ, 3imon 4ary, editor 1C 5dvisor (+8 6. 5cademic achievement, &oung children and their internet use, )olloway,*., Green, 6. and 6ivingstone, 3. (+. Hero to eight. &oung children and their internet use. 63/, 6ondonI /"
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