The Catalan Society of Pediatrics (SCP) advises that the smart phone use arrives when the minor is sufficiently mature, which generally occurs “in the last years of adolescence”, and limits its use in institutes “exclusively with specific educational purposes.
The document ‘Digital health in the pediatric age’, made public this Friday, includes considerations and recommendations for families based on the conclusions of a debate between specialists which took place last November 25, in a day organized by the SCP itself. And one of its main conclusions is that the delivery of the first device ought delayed until beyond 12 yearsthe most common age at which a teenager usually accesses their first smartphone.
Social debate
The pediatricians’ recommendations come at a time of debate in the educational environment about the most appropriate time for adolescents to have a mobile phone, due to the consequences that social networks and other content are having on school performance, social relationships and mental problems.
In this sense, various parent movements, including Adolescència Lliure de Mòbil – born in the Barcelona neighborhood of Poblenou -, demand that they be prohibited before the age of 16 and that they be limited in high schools.
The SCP does not speak of a prohibition but does recommend that “the use of mobile phones in educational centers and non-formal education environments be done exclusively for specific educational purposes or for health reasons.”
emotional upset
The scientific society points out that “this measure aims to promote healthy development, decreased emotional distress and mental disordersthe decrease in cyberbullying school and do not interfere with learning“.
Regarding the age to have a first device, the SCP establishes a series of recommendations that invite us to delay the moment beyond 12 years (the most common age currently).
Thus, in the chapter dedicated to the age group 12 to 16, the SCP advises that the autonomous use of mobile arrive only when the adolescent is sufficient digital skills and achieve sufficient maturity to act responsibly”: “These qualities and aptitudes are generally in the development phase in the last years of adolescence”, a period that is between 10 and 19 years old.
Limited data and parental controls
If parents decide to give their children a phone, pediatricians advise that they have “limited data and tools Parental control”adds the document.
In this sense, between 12 and 16 years of age, specialists recommend that work be done to promote “autonomous and responsible” use of screens, always ensuring that “they do not affect direct interaction with others, study time , leisure time or other daily activities”.
Writing a digital family plan with consistent rules that the entire family must follow can help, pediatricians advise.
Reflection
In addition, it is essential that parents “encourage reflection on the possible dangers of the digital environment”, that there be “affective-sexual education” and that they be attentive to changes in habits, routines, sleep rhythm or emotional state, the document maintains.
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The SCP highlights that there is sufficient evidence that links the inappropriate use of digital technology with problems in neurodevelopment and learning, physical, mental, social and emotional-sexual health.
In the 6 to 12 age group, exposure to screens must be “limited and supervised”, with a maximum daily time of 1 hour, and between 3 and 6 years it must be less than 30 minutes a day and not every day. of the week.