Does your child constantly stare at a computer, phone, tablet or TV screen and also wear glasses? There’s a connection. New evidence shows that electronic devices can cause vision impairments in children, including blurred vision, eyestrain and shortsightedness.
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A report by StudyFinds in England showed that the percentage of 13- to 16-year-olds in the U.K. who need glasses has almost doubled from 2012 to 2018 — jumping from 20% to 35%. Two-thirds of those teens were diagnosed as being shortsighted, aka nearsighted or myopic.
In addition, there may be more long-term effects of electronic use on children that have yet to be discovered. Researchers in the study noted that further research is needed.
Additional research has shown that screen time also impairs brain development. Children aged 9 to 10 who use electronic devices for seven hours or more per day exhibit premature thinning of the brain cortex, and as little as two hours of daily screen time could impact cognition, resulting in lower scores on thinking and language tests.
Parents who think their infants and toddlers are learning language or other skills from a phone or tablet are mistaken. Infants under the age of 2 do not effectively learn language from videos and a toddler who builds things virtually with Legos cannot do the same in the real world. Young children must have live interaction to learn because they are unable to transfer what they see or hear on a screen to real life.
Children and adults — even babies in utero — are bombarded 24/7 with radio frequencies emitted from electronic devices of all kinds, from routers to smartphones, tablets, baby monitors, TVs, appliances, smart meters and many more.
Exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) has increased about 1 quintillion times over the past 100 years. Most people know that they are surrounded by EMFs but are unaware of the damage it’s causing until it's too late. Even then, it’s extremely difficult to link the exposure to any symptoms or diseases. Excessive exposures to cellphones and Wi-Fi networks have been linked to chronic diseases such as cardiac arrhythmias, anxiety, depression, autism, Alzheimer’s and infertility.
To compound the problem, electronics may be to blame for your child’s sleep deprivation, resulting in inattentiveness, lack of concentration or even falling asleep in school. School-age children need nine to 11 hours of sleep a night and teens need eight to 10. Preschoolers and toddlers need even more — from 10 to 14 hours a night.
Doctors recommend that parents turn off their child’s electronics and cellphone to address sleep problems. Exposure to computer, tablet and phone screens or TVs at night significantly suppresses melatonin production and feelings of sleepiness. Turn it all off before you turn in.