It isn’t really hard to see some things, like why children and youth spend so much time on the Internet. Look around the room. What is everyone doing? At home, at a restaurant? When you have a family gathering, are cell phones collected and put in a basket to be retrieved on your way out the door again after the gathering, like collecting everyone’s car keys when they arrive at your house for a party that will include alcohol beverages? Maybe it should be a thing to do when everyone gets home from work and school at the end of the day.
A recent webinar, “Mental Heath Implications of Current Events for Kids and Teens: How the pandemic, insidious internet influences, school shootings and other stressors impact our youth,” reported a 15 percent increase in Internet and screen time since the pandemic.
— 8-10-year-olds, 6 hours a day
— 11-14-year-olds, 9 hours a day
— 15-18-year-olds, 7.5 hours a day
Some of the problems arising from too much time spent with the Internet include developmental and milestone delays, reduction in social, familial or physical activities. There is an increase in physical, emotional and mental health problems (self-harm, eating, sleeping, emergency room visits and low self-esteem). There is more cyberbullying, citing Tiktok and Roblox as some of the worst, and these include pornography. Cyber-bullying increased to 59 percent of kids but it is believed that the number is actually higher and has gone unreported.
There has been an increase in exposure to pornography, and about 88 percent of the pornography includes physical aggression and 49 percent contains verbal.
Teens have reported not knowing what the word “consent” means, or what “obscene” means.
CONSENT: permission for something to happen or agreement to do something.
OBSCENE: (of the portrayal or description of sexual matters) offensive or disgusting by accepted standards of morality and decency.
Parents speak of the lack of sex education classes in the schools and exposure to porn through Roblox.
Much as nobody wants to hear it, using electronics to babysit children because one is busy and doesn’t have enough time indicates that priorities need to be established and observed. Children and adolescents are in crisis. The adolescent you love may look all grown up on the outside, but maybe you can look to the inside, what’s going on inside that grown-up looking youth? Maybe you think that child needs to be more responsible, but take a look at Piaget’s stages of childhood to gain an understanding about what can be expected of a young child and when they need help from the loving, caring adults in their lives.
We all get busy. There are so many things to get done in a day’s time. But today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders. How can we, together, give them the tools they will need for the responsibilities they will inherit?
Family Recovery Center has professional staff who are ready to listen when you have no one else to talk to. The goal is for the health and well-being of all. Contact the agency at 964 N. Market St., Lisbon; phone, 330-424-1468; or email info@familyrecovery.org. Visit the website at familyrecovery.org. You can find Family Recovery Center at Facebook. FRC is funded in part by the Columbiana County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board.