These days, digital screens dominate the minds of the old and even the very young. A recent study conducted by two researchers from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Raipur and published in the journal, Cureus, has revealed that an average Indian child under the age of five is spending nearly 2.2 hours in front of screens and that the mean screen time of children under the age of two is 1.2 hours. This is alarming because the recommended limits of screen exposure set by the World Health Organization for the former is a supervised one hour; for the latter, screen time is supposed to be minimal. The study, which surveyed 2,857 children, also revealed that the increased hours spent in front of digital screens are hampering the development of children’s cognitive abilities and harming their physical health. Laboured development of language and social skills, disturbed sleep patterns, and reduced concentration are some of the other deleterious effects. These findings, incidentally, are consistent with domestic and international research. Another recent study published in BMJ Paediatrics Open found that 60% of toddlers in the five North Indian states spent 2–4 hours daily in front of screens. Further, global research published in JAMA Pediatrics last year highlighted that children under the age of two exposed to television and DVDs experienced sensory differences later in childhood.
During this crucial formative period, a child's development is heavily contingent upon face-to-face interactions. Sensory-rich experiences and companionship are essential for the normal development of emotional intelligence, problem-solving skills and the multifaceted process of language learning. Phones and laptops cannot be a substitute for this natural stimulation. Parents, undoubtedly, are responsible for this heightened digital exposure among kids. Overworked fathers and mothers passing on their phones and laptops to their wards to either pacify them or use the distraction to free up their time for household chores is a reality. Nuclear, fragmented family set-ups shorn of supportive mechanisms add to the challenge. In this regard, the digital addiction of children is the consequence of social transformations and structural impediments. Modern parenting must experiment with greater digital gatekeeping for children; weaning them off their digital devices for a specific period of time — strict adherence to periodic no-phone days — is an idea whose time has come for India and the world.