Category: Principal’s Blog

This blog is especially for those parents who hand over mobile phones to their young children just to keep tem busy. These are parents who do not have time for their children. When the children cry, become restless, these parents think that handing over a mobile phone will help the child settle down.

But latest study has revealed that children up to the age of 6 who frequently use mobile phones, suffer from weak memory as they grow older and are more likely to face several mental disorders.

We request all parents with young children to pay attention to this and avoid making the mistake of handing over mobile phones to their kids just to pacify them — a mistake most parents are unknowingly making.

This study has been published in a book titled Understanding Your Child’s Brain, and it highlights three major findings:

1. Children aged 6 years or below who play with or use mobile phones tend to have significantly weaker memory compared to others. These children also become more irritable and, as they grow older, face problems like obesity, depression, anxiety, and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Children with ADD struggle to concentrate or focus on one thing. Their attention span becomes very short, and their minds constantly wander. They get angry over minor things.
2. The study states that parents are primarily responsible for such mental conditions in children. Many parents hand over their phones to distract or calm their kids, thinking it will keep them quiet. They think letting the child watch videos or play games on a mobile phone will keep them entertained and help them eat their food quietly. In doing so, the phone ends up in the child’s hands, and parents feel satisfied that their child is now calm and no longer crying or demanding attention.
3. But in reality, the addiction to mobile phones is just like an actual drug for small children — similar to alcohol or a sedative. If I were to ask you: when your child is crying or restless, would you ever give them drugs or sleeping pills? Most of you would say, “Never!” But when you give a mobile phone to your child to calm them down, it’s as if you’re giving them a digital drug — and this new drug is the mobile phone. Soon the child becomes addicted to it and cannot sleep or stay calm without it.

While alcohol may damage the liver, watching videos or playing games on mobile phones harms the brain. These children grow up unable to differentiate between right and wrong. Their concentration levels drop significantly. They struggle to focus in school, later in college, and even in their careers.A recent survey in India revealed that 7 out of 10 parents admitted that their child uses a mobile phone for 4 to 5 hours a day. A study in the US compares giving a phone to a small child to giving an 800cc racing bike to a toddler — dangerous and inappropriate.

So, parents who believe that giving their children a mobile phone will keep them calm are actually pushing their children into long-term mental problems. The study also says that online gaming significantly affects the intellectual development of children under 18. These children begin to normalize violence, and their behavior becomes aggressive.

This is exactly what’s happening with many children in India today. Think about your own child’s behavior — has it become more aggressive in the past few years? Compared to the past, today’s children tend to be more defiant, less obedient to their parents, and lack focus.

Many parents complain that kids today don’t listen and rebel at the smallest provocation. In India today, children are learning to use mobile phones before they learn how to walk. And this addiction only goes away when the device is turned off.

A survey says that children under 6 years old in India have an average screen time of 55 minutes per day — nearly one hour — even though many of them haven’t even started walking yet. This is happening because most Indian parents are unaware of the dangers of mobile phones. They don’t realize what they’re handing over to their children, and by the time the child grows up, the phone may have already ruined their personality.

In earlier times, parents used to dedicate a lot of time to their children — massaging their bodies, caring for their hair, and even gently shaping their features. They spent a great deal of time caring for their child’s physical development. But that has changed.