3 Good Reasons Not To Leave Your Cell Phone With A Child

Do you know what would be some reasons for not leaving your cell phone with a child? Would it be okay, would it be wrong? We understand this doubt, as new technologies are part of our lives and children are increasingly smart about their use. The great capacity for learning that they have at this age, curiosity and the infinite world of possibilities offered by electronic devices make them irresistible for them.

Childhood is one of the areas where new technologies are increasingly present, and children don’t take long to ask for their cell phone “screaming”. So that you can make a correct and well-informed decision, we’ve shared in this article three good reasons not to leave your cell phone with a child, or at least leave it under supervision and for a limited time.

Why not leave your cell phone with a child

1. Affects neuronal development: cell phones teach the brain to function under constant stimulation

Operating in an environment where we are always encouraged can seem like a positive circumstance. In fact, many child development experts emphasize the need to encourage children from an early age to achieve maximum intellectual development. What happens with cell phones in this sense is that the stimulation they produce is unhealthy.

Why is it not healthy? Mobile devices constantly stimulate the brain and provide a changing, vibrant and ever-changing environment. This overstimulation for the child is very pleasant, but it is unhealthy because it is not similar to the stimulation that the child encounters later in real life.

Thus, it is said that overstimulation is not healthy because part of it is still very artificial, something that can cause great frustration when the child faces real life (more boring and less stimulating). For these reasons, there are studies that associate the use of cell phones by children under 10 years old (when the cerebral white matter formation phase is at its peak) with the appearance of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

2. Exposes the child to the danger of the Internet and social media

Leaving a child with a cell phone means giving access to a big world that parents cannot control: the world of the Internet. To explain it metaphorically: if you don’t leave your son or daughter alone in a mall without watching who he talks with, who he plays with and who he relates to, why leave him alone on his cell phone?

Even if you believe that your son or daughter can use a cell phone in a controlled manner, this idea is not realistic. If you think about it, you’ll be aware of what the child does with the cell phone during the first few days, but after that, he’s very likely to trust and let his guard down. So, over time, you can expose the child to a series of stimuli and situations that you don’t control.

On the other hand, by leaving your cell phone with a child, you help make it easier for them to prefer “online” social relationships rather than face-to-face, real-time ones. This translates into greater difficulty in acquiring social skills, something that can be an obstacle to your social and professional life as an adult.

3. Makes it difficult to develop correct habits and necessary skills

Using a cell phone from early childhood prevents the development of an important skill: concentration. This is because mobile devices are designed to jump from one stimulus to another, and concentration is the opposite (focusing on one stimulus at a time, constantly and over an extended period of time).

It’s true that kids can focus a lot on what appears on the screen, but it’s an easy concentration: it’s driven by continual change, and so much of the weight is held by the phone itself. Fortunately for everyone, children and parents, the brain is flexible and can learn to focus even as an adult brain. However, given the possibility, it is better that they learn from an early age.

Likewise, leaving your cell phone with a child deprives them of learning to overcome boredom with their own initiatives. Being able to get bored is very important, but with the phone you make sure she is always entertained and doesn’t have to face boredom. Of course, you also make the child more work, which is sometimes a “more uncomfortable” and “agitated” child. However, this test for his patience is a good thing for him.

Finally, although in this article we have focused on reasons for not using a cell phone in childhood, there are reasons that can be good or neutral and that should also be considered. Anyway, the important thing is to have control over what happens: if we leave the phone with the child, we have to be careful.

Do not use the cell phone as a resource for the child to be quiet for a while and do not reduce the level of vigilance. It’s also about managing time: if grandparents or others already allow access to the phone, instruct them on how you want them to do it. In this case, it is even more advisable not to let the child play with the phone, even if they call us “bad” people, so you won’t double the time of exposure to the technology.