Children and Electronics Craving, How Serious is that!

Abeer M Alharbi

Department of Pediatrics, Child Developmental and Behavioral Section, College of Medicine, Saudi Arabia

*Correspondence to: Dr. Abeer M Alharbi, Department of Pediatrics, Child Developmental and Behavioral Section, College of Medicine, Saudi Arabia.

Copyright © 2018 Dr. Abeer M Alharbi. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

What was observable during summer holiday this year and of concern, is how much time children at different age group, both gender have spent with electronic devices (e.g. television, mobile, video games and computers) Moreover, they choose and enjoy staying long hours facing screen than other physical activities.

Can we call this emerging phenomenon “electronics craving”? Somewhat like food or alcohol craving! in which the persistent intense desire of using different modalities of electronics can eventually lead to Eaddiction that is associated with major negative consequences on children psychosocial, physical and mental wellbeing.

Although many studies were done exploring the effect of media and electronics on child Cognition, behavior and learning, no studies where found assessing electronics and media addiction in children and adolescents.

Since 1999 American academy of pediatrics discourage media usages in children at younger age as stated in their policy statement [1], however what was found is the screen time exposure increased as the child become older. Report by Rideout school-aged children and adolescents can spent around 7 -11 hours per day of different modalities of devices [2] 2015 Hale study examined the negative relation between screen exposure time and Various sleep problems [3].Other studies highlighted the positive and negative impact of Electronics on children.

We live era of renewed technology and electronics with ultimate goal of having The maximum benefit of technology with minimum harm to human health at the same time. However, extensive researches should be conducted to find out about the safe use and exposure level of these devices, in addition to determine how to prevent and manage electronics craving and addiction in vulnerable populations.

Bibliography

1. Statement P. (2011). Media Use by Children Younger Than 2 Years. Pediatrics, 128(5), 1040-1045.
2. Rideout, V. J., Foehr, U. G. & Roberts, D. F. (2010). Generation M [superscript 2]: Media in the Lives of 8-to 18-Year-Olds. Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation.
3. Hale, L. & Guan, S. (2015). Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents: a systematic literature review. Sleep Med Rev., 21, 50-58.