For years now, technology has been adapting – for the better and for the worst. The amount of technology used by children has increased rapidly compared to the rapid decrease of the use of traditional pen and paper.
Children no longer sit down with a piece of paper and some colouring pencils or pens, they now only want to use an electronic device. Whether it’s a phone, a tablet or even a laptop, their minds are connected to the products we now consider to be day-to-day items. The more technology evolves, the more access children have to all types of websites and games on the internet. Could this put children at risk?
On a typical day, children consume just over three hours of media. This includes computer use, mobile phone use, tablet use, music and reading. A BBC news report in 2015 interviewed ‘Childwise’ and found that ‘children aged five to sixteen years old spend an average of six and a half hours a day in front of a screen, compared to an average of around three hours in 1995’. They also found out that ‘Teenage boys spend the longest amount of time in front of a screen a day with an average of eight hours. Eight year old girls spend the least amount of time in front of a screen, with an average of three and a half hours per day’. This information shows us that all age groups have access to technology on a daily basis - some more than others, due to the control of their parents. It’s much easier to prevent your eight-year-old daughter from consuming media than it is your teenage son, due to their maturity and the fact that they should be learning to take responsibility for their actions. This is the reason why the results showed such a large amount of hours for teenage boys and such a little amount of hours for eight-year-old girls.
Is technology taking over children’s lives? Should parents be restricting the amount of time their children spend in front of a screen everyday?
