Author and Researcher: Ibrahim Nasir
Email: ibrahimnasir916@gmail.com
According to Techopedia “Mobile phone is a wireless handheld device that allows users to make and receive calls. While the earliest generation of mobile phones could only make and receive calls, today’s mobile phones do a lot more, accommodating web browsers, games, cameras, video players and navigational systems.” No doubt mobile phones have amplified global connectivity and made the lives of people easier and convenient but it has its own consequences on children that must be discovered and presented. According to a survey conducted by Pew research center, “80% of parents with a child age 5 to 11 say their child uses or interacts with a tablet computer, compared with 64% of parents with a child age 3 to 4 who do this and 35% with a child or a child age 2 or younger.” This survey was conducted only with American families. Considering nationally, 94% of the total male students in Punjab and 82 of the female students use mobile phones. It explains that this issue isn’t constricted to US but also to the other nations making it a global issue. A question arises that ‘Should children have access to mobile phones on a global scale?’
A significant cause of using mobile phones is that children can learn many new skills that will be beneficial for them in their lives. For example, many children-through their devices- created their own arts and music. Many of the children created poems, anime and also learned photography. 53% of children aged 8-18 year olds confirmed that these research findings. “I made designs for stickers, t-shirts, posters, cards, and ads”, a statement made by 16-year-old girl. According to a study conducted in Iraq, 99% of students believe that mobile phones are effective in the process of learning English language. Another research conducted in Pakistan shows that 78% of the students use their phones to download English learning apps. This conspicuously shows that smartphones have a clear benefit on a teenager’s language developing skills and also that how many diverse students use mobiles to learn a new language.
Another adverse effect of using smartphone for children is that they can lay their hands on inappropriate content. There are many types of unsuitable content including inaccurate information or adult content. According to NSPCC, 56% of 11-16 year olds have come across explicit material. Moreover, 1/3rd of children in British has seen sexist, racist or discriminatory content. I think it’s safe to say that internet is much more deep, mysterious and harmful than it appears to the eye. Dr. Jane Doe, psychologist who concentrates on child development says “The easy availability of adult content online is a real problem for children. It can have a devastating impact on their mental health and their relationships. Parents need to be aware of the risks and take steps to protect their children.” Moving on to the effects, adult content can increase anxiety and depression as well as trouble sleeping as the images keep popping in the mind making it difficult to relax. Moreover, according to studies, children exposed to adult content with violence have a higher chance to have a violent behavior which can include assaulting or bullying. A serial killer responsible for rapes and murders of numerous young women, Theodore Robert, was exposed to adult content at a young age and during his final interviews blames adult content for his actions.
An effective measure to reduce the use of mobile phone for children is to allowing them to go out and take part in different activities of their interest. Children are compelled to stay at home by their parents and consequently they get attached to mobile phones. Parents can allow their children to go to park and teenagers can join different sports club or get jobs to keep them occupied. A policy of the same kind should be made by UN and WHO with collaboration to IMF or World Bank to allow government of different countries to open different clubs and make new parks in the society. More shops should be opened only to hire teenage groups. The role of IMF will be to offer funds to those countries who can’t afford to make these changes. Parents should also collaborate with the government. This will positively impact children as it is also good for their physical and mental well-being thus it will be acceptable to both the parents and the children.
As far as my opinion is concerned, children and teenagers should not be allowed to use mobile phones considering the social perspectives. At first, I thought that children should use phones as I myself is a teenager and I knew how much it benefitted in education. However, after discovering the alarming statistics of cyberbullying, child sex trafficking and child sexual abuse from all over the world through the phone made me rethink my opinion. The perspective of Dr. Jane Doe, a psychologist influenced my own perspective as I hadn’t known the devastating impacts of adult content on children. Later through my research, I also came to know that many children aren’t mature enough to be on the internet and many of them has no supervisions making it more likely for them to be a victim to all kind of internet atrocities.
