How the smartphone can make you sick

Ana Goldscheider studied journalism and corporate communication in Hamburg and is now completing additional training as an editor. In a medical editorial office, she writes texts for print magazines and, among other things.

More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.

During the Corona period, digital media made it possible for young people to homeschool and exchange ideas with friends. But smartphones and the like do not only have advantages, warn experts.

How long does the cell phone stay on in the children's room in the evening? Which apps can be downloaded? The smartphone is a big controversy in many families. The background to this is the parents' concern that hours of paddling or consuming YouTube and Co. will have a negative effect on the health of their offspring. This is the result of a Forsa survey commissioned by the commercial health insurance company KKH.

According to this, half of the around 1,000 mothers and fathers surveyed fear addiction-like use of the smartphone, and concentration disorders (44 percent) and too little exercise (38 percent) are seen as possible negative consequences for 10 to 18-year-old daughters and sons.

Certain diseases are becoming more common

The parents' concerns are justified, said the KKH psychologist Franziska Klemm on Thursday in Hanover. In fact, there are indications that more and more children and adolescents are suffering from diseases that used to be rather untypical.

Examples are motor disorders, sleep disorders or obesity, i.e. extremely overweight. When evaluating the data from 6 to 18-year-old KKH insured persons, the highest increase in speech and speech disorders was recorded in 2018 compared to 2008.

Parents as role models

"The fact that language development suffers has to do with how parents communicate with their children," said neuroscientist Martin Korte from the Technical University of Braunschweig. It is important that children see their parents' face and mouth when they speak to them. That is not possible if parents are constantly sitting behind their devices or are constantly filming in the playground.

No screen media under three years of age

The professional association of paediatricians advocates keeping under three-year-olds completely away from screen media. Parents should be a good role model and never use smartphones and the like out of boredom. "Playing with real things, speaking, reading, artistic, outdoor exercise, sleeping and school are often neglected," the medical professionals see as the downside of digitization.

"It is part of the parenting responsibility to convey when on and off times are," said neurobiologist Korte. For brain development, it is important to continue to acquire knowledge despite Google. "The more we know, the more differentiated we look at the world and the better we can assess, for example, what fake news is." According to studies from the USA, Korte says that eleven-year-olds spend an average of around six hours a day in front of various devices. While boys mainly gamble, girls spend most of their time on social media. (ag / dpa)

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