These days I was at the initial meeting of my 4-year-old son's school and one of the topics that came up is the current use of mobile phones among children and as that use more and more, it is affecting the behavior and performance of the youngest.
On this subject I would like to reflect a little, especially since the use of cell phones among the youngest children, is growing more and more and we are the parents without a doubt responsible for this happening.
On the one hand, parents often consider it an element to feel more "safe", because they think that they will have the most watched children before the growing dangers that currently exist in society and that children for being much more vulnerable are every most exposed day.
On the other hand, because the marketing work that mobile phone companies do to position themselves among the youngest that parents often end up giving in to the whims of children who are influenced by advertising campaigns is such.
Every day it is more frequent to see young children with a mobile. Without going too far a few months ago, before the summer holidays, my 4-year-old son from preschool arrived, very amazed at the novelty of the day, a classmate from his classroom had arrived with a mobile phone that his mother gave him to take him in the bag for emergencies, since the child stayed for a couple of days to have lunch at the nursery and then receive English classes.
Of course, all the children in the room came home with the same story and very eager to know when they would be the lucky ones to have such a novelty. Now I wonder, what emergency situation can be presented to a 4-year-old child in preschool or daycare, who is not able to channel or resolve the teacher, the school principal or the staff in charge, but what Yes, it can be answered with a call from a small 4 year old.
I believe that as parents before making the decision to give our children a mobile phone, regardless of the circumstances and needs we have as a family and leaving aside the issue of the possible risks that prolonged exposure to use could lead to health of cell phones, which is the object of countless studies today and that is another matter to consider, we must ask ourselves At what age is it appropriate for a child to have a mobile phone?
In my opinion, that age must be at which our son is mature enough to take responsibility for having a cell phone and that is definitely not 4, 5 or 6 years old and even more. I believe that in order to have a mobile phone, the child must be able to understand what it is to make responsible use of the telephone, which goes far beyond knowing how to use the telephone, since I am sure that the children of 4 years of today that we adults.
In addition to the issue of responsibility that we give children to give them a mobile, with cell phones we are giving the child one more element of distraction that tends to isolate them. As can happen with the abusive use of video game consoles, television and computers, since mobile phones are much more than just a phone, they serve to send messages, listen to music or play and this can definitely affect the social development of children.
Sooner or later all parents will ask at some point, what is the time and age at which our children must have a mobile phone and surely each family will have to assess their own circumstances and needs. But as much as the parents work outside the home and the child is in the care of other people, I think we should always start by assessing the level of maturity of our children and not imposing responsibilities that do not belong to them.
This is my opinion and surely there are those who think differently and what do you think?
