Children must be banned from having smart phones.
Smartphones are multi purposed and convenient tools for adults who cannot grow any smarter than they already are However in case of children, who are growing in physically and mentally, must be banned from having them to prevent smart phone addiction, enhance academic performance and improve health.
Seoul announced last November that one out of every five students residing in Seoul is addicted to smart phones. The figure is part of the results of the survey of 4998 students in the 4th through 11th grades across 75 schools in Seoul who were evaluated over the weeks on a diagnostic scale developed by the National Information Society Agency. Those who were categorized as ‘highly dangerous’ and ‘potentially dangerous’ were considered to be addicted by smart phone. 2.9 percent proved to be ‘highly dangerous’, with 16.1 percent ‘potentially dangerous’ The figure of those smart phone-addicted doubled comparing to the year 2012. Parents must consider this problem seriously.
The longer your child holds his phone, the more problems he will suffer. One of most serious problems is cyber-bullying which is a hot potato these days. As soon as a child is enrolled in a school, he starts to learn how to manage himself to interact with others. However, overuse of SNS or dependency on SNS instead of communicating face to face will make your child cyber-bully others or get bullied. And consequently, your child’s social life will be abnormal. Poor academic performance is another. There are many things that attract your child to abandon his desk, lay down on his bed and just kill time. Games, SNS, videos and so many other things are there to click to entertain your child and even worse, some are fatal to your children. Not only that, these are critical to health. Studies show that users often associate using smart phone with headaches, impaired memory and concentration, fatigue, dizziness and disturbed sleep and all symptoms of radiation sickness.
Some parents allow their children to have smart phones for emergency calls and educational purposes. However, there are alternatives. Non- smart phones are cheaper, healthier and easier to use. Children can also make emergency calls with those. Studying tools such as dictionaries, books and DVD are better choice to make. Still some parents are worried that their children would feel left out or inferior when deprived of a smart phone. However, that is not a thing to worry about. Children without it will learn how to have good relationship with others instead of just gazing at the screen, spaced out.
Smart phones are addictive. It is hard to just put off for some time, so the best way to protect our children is to ban “smart phones” from having it and prevent the addiction. Do you love your children? Then take away the deadly weapon from your child so that he can come back to himself. You see, smartphones are 'smart' but smart phone users do not need to grow 'smarter'.
