Children away from screens: what is over screentime

It takes just two hours in front of a screen to develop health problems, especially in children and adolescents. The much debated topic is not new but the list of studies confirming this thesis is getting longer.

The latest recently published on American Journal of Preventive Medicine verified the close correlation between the excessive use of displays (TV, computer, smartphone) and the appearance of psychosomatic symptoms such as headache, abdominal pain, back pain, feeling of depression, irritability or bad mood, nervousness, difficulty in sleep and dizziness.

Research conducted on over 400,000 teenagers by the University of Queensland, Australia, and Queen’s University and University of Ottawa in Canada, has shown that it takes just two hours of screen use to develop symptoms. PCs and mobile phones, even used only for viewing multimedia content increases the risk of psychosomatic disorders by 84% in boys and 108% more in girls. Similar results are also seen when watching TV and when playing video games.

This phenomenon, known as over screentime, particularly affects children. Much research has already given the alarm. Experts from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center found an evident modification of the brain of the little ones, in particular a reduction of the white matter which represents the organ’s internal communication network. In other words, the overuse of displays produces a deficit in cognitive skills, especially in language and literacy.

«Then the ability to concentrate is reduced but also the ability to wait. With the tablet it develops the stimulus-response modelHe claims professor Giuseppe Riva, director of the Experimental Laboratory of Applied Technological Research in Neuropsychology of the Italian Auxological Institute. «With language I can talk about things that I might not have in front of me (I can talk about a glass even if I don’t have it in front of my eyes). With the tablet or smartphone instead action is taken immediately“.

It is therefore no coincidence that elementary school teachers encounter an increasing number of children with dyslexia problems, learning and with a poor ability to maintain attention in the classroom. In particular, it seems that the lack of concentration can also be linked to the use of touch devices.

As the professor of cognitive psychology at Birkbeck-University of London Tom Smith explains, “there is a concern related to the possible impact that the use of the touchscreen, which today affects more than 6 out of 10 children already in the third and fourth year of life, it could have on the attention of children. But up to now the empirical evidence to support this hypothesis has been scarce ».

Excessive exposure to screens brings with it other side effects, but even in this case the research does not establish a precise and unequivocal correlation. Many studies indicate however problems related to sleep quality, weight gain (childhood obesity) and visual disturbances (chronic visual fatigue and myopia). In some cases there are also behavioral problems, the child tends to close his world within the perimeters of the electronic device with the risk of isolation.

“The discovery of these technologies does not have to be premature: never before they go to kindergarten», Says prof. Giuseppe Riva. The World Health Organization dictates some important guidelines: no tablets, smartphones and TVs under two years oldafter 24 months of age at most 1 hour of exposure to displays up to 4 years.

These are just recommendations, but they should be taken into consideration especially when there is a tendency to replace the role of play and personal interaction by giving children electronic devices as surrogates for babysitters and parents.