Smartphone addiction hampering child's mental wellness

Joharin is the two-year old daughter of Reza and Khadija. She just loves to watch cartoons on smartphone. Whenever the baby cries, her parents immediately handover their smartphone to her and it works like magic. Joharin stops crying as soon as she gets the smartphone. It is often seen that the girl does not want to eat, mother Khadija tries to feed her quickly, keeping the baby busy with the smartphone.

At the end, the situation is such that eating, sleeping, playing -- she wants a smartphone for everything. Her mother suddenly discovered one afternoon that Joharin's right eye was looking unusual. She rushed to the doctor with her tiny tot. After completing all procedures, the doctor said that the cornea of Joharin's right eye had moved due to constant staring at the smartphone for a long time. As a result, she was looking cross-eyed.
In recent research, it was seen that on an average a child in Bangladesh uses a smartphone for around three hours a day. A significant number of children in the country use smartphones for even five hours a day on an average. The research found that the excessive use of smartphones by the parents, encourages their children to get addicted to the devices.
According to paediatricians and mental health experts, children easily get addicted to smartphones through the excessive use of the device, and it is leaving a huge negative impact on the child's early social and emotional development, hampering the development of their multifaceted skills.
According to the latest data of Bangladesh Tele communication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the number of mobile phone users in the country is 183.8million. Among them, currently the number of internet users is 13 crore 19lakh, which is 32 percent of the total population. Meanwhile, 11 crore 97lakh people use the internet on their mobile phone, which is 90.79 percent ofthe total internet users. Also, the number of smartphone users is 53 million, reports BSS.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) statistics, as of 2022, the total number of children aged five to 17 years in the country is 3.99million. Among them, 41 percent above the age of five use the Internet. Recently, a group of researchers from Jahangirnagar University studied the effect of smartphone use on children. It shows that in Bangladesh, parents who use smartphones for three hours or more every day, the risk of their children becoming addicted to the phones is about 90 times higher than that of children who do not use the devices.
Moreover, 92 percent of children use a parent's smartphone and eight percent of children have their own. In this research, it is also seen that whenever the child is crying, does not want to eat or whenever the parents want to finish their own work, they give smartphones to their child to keep him/her busy. The child is calmed down by showing cartoons on the phones.
About the negative effects of smartphone use on children, one of the membersof the research team Professor Dr Mohammad Nazmul Haque said: "Smartphoneaddiction has become a big problem nowadays. Smartphone-addicted children are500 times more likely to develop mental health problems and 230 times morelikely to have physical health problems than non-phone-addicted children. Ithas a variety of detrimental effects on the physical and mental health andcognitive development of pre-school children. However, 50 percent of mothersbelieve that their children can learn a lot using smartphones."
Psychologists identify this attraction of children and teenagers towardsmobile phones and the internet as internet addiction or mobile phoneaddiction. In this context, paediatrician and president of BangladeshChildren's Physicians Association Professor Dr Manjur Hossain said: "Dopamineneurotransmitter is released from brain cells while watching TV, mobile gamesor any kind of virtual entertainment. This dopamine transmits a good feelingto our mind. As a result, we become addicted very easily."
Meanwhile, Associate Professor of Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College,Dr Farzana Robin identifies internet addiction as not a disease but a majorproblem responsible for many diseases.
Expert doctors are citing smartphone addiction as dangerous as drugaddiction. According to a study by Public Health of England, if youngchildren keep their eyes on mobile phones, television, video games orcomputers for a long time, they may suffer from inferiority complex, losemental balance including depression and become addicted to pornography.
During this time, there is a risk of various complications includingirritability, headache, watery eyes, loss of appetite, obesity, behaviouralchanges and loss of vision. In addition, there is a direct relationshipbetween video game addiction and autism spectrum disorder, attention deficitdisorder, depression and severe depression in children and adolescents.
According to mental health experts, excessive internet addiction causesattention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, disruptslanguage development and increases the risk of damage to various parts of theeye, including the cornea-retina, and the highly harmful radiation fromscreens disrupts their brain development.
Renowned mental health expert of the country and National Health InstituteProf Meghla Sarkar said many times parents' hand over a harmful thing like amobile phone to the child to control his stubbornness or to reduce hismischief or to feed him.
In order to reduce a temporary problem, they are getting involved in a bigproblem as mobile has a kind of addictive element. So naturally, when a childgets such an attractive and stimulating phone in his/her hands, theirtendency to become addicted to it increases compared to adults. Therefore,handing over a mobile phone to a child at an early age means compromisingwith the elements of nature and environment from which his mental developmentand social skills were supposed to be formed. Therefore, in order to ensure the mental health protection of a mobileaddicted child, the parents must first be aware that its excessive use ishindering the development of the child's mental health. In this case, firstof all, as parents, they should stop handing mobile phones to the child forthe purpose of playing or feeding them, try to create interest in him forsocializing with outside children and above all to ensure that childrenparticipate in sports and creative social activities from an early age. Many people think that children and adolescents cannot have mental illness.However, scientific studies show that children are at risk of developingmental problems right from birth.
Generally, children and teenagers of our country are suffering from variousmental problems or diseases. Notable among these are hyperactivity,behavioural problems, bedwetting disorders, school retention/school phobias,restlessness or tension disorders, anorexia and food aversion disorders, andchild development problems: autism spectrum disorders.
Therefore, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ensured allthe rights of children in the constitution to protect the future of thecountry. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, hergovernment is conducting child nutrition-health-education programs with theaim of ensuring the overall development and empowerment of children in theimplementation of the Vision 2021, reports BSS.
In line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Seventh Five YearPlan has set targets for child health, education, nutrition, water andsanitation. Also, through the establishment of the 'National Council forWomen and Children Development' (NCWCD), policy-making guidance is beinggiven on the safety and security of women and children.