Blessed Sabbath Church Family,
I wanted to bring you information on media and its potential impact on children’s mental health.
“Upon all parents there rests the obligation of giving physical, mental, and spiritual instruction. It should be the object of every parent to secure to his child a well-balanced, symmetrical character. This is a work of no small magnitude and importance—a work requiring earnest thought and prayer no less than patient, persevering effort. A right foundation must be laid, a framework, strong and firm, erected; and then day by day the work of building, polishing, perfecting, must go forward.” (CT 1072) EGW
Learning Difficulties: Providing a child with a smart phone or tablet means giving them access to multiple forms of entertainment all at once. This causes them to be more easily distracted and develop an inability to pay attention in class. Along with the attention deficits comes impaired visual memory, imagination, and the ability to work efficiently and effectively or focus in a task.
Exposure to Radiation: A child’s head has a two times greater capacity to absorb radiation, and their skull’s bone marrow absorbs ten times the radiation of an adult’s. Though we don’t yet know all the effect of cell phone radiation we do know that it increases risk of developing brain tumors and cancer. More studies need to be done on wireless radiation and its effects on brain development in children.
Decreases Health: Studies now show that media and technology use promotes ill-being among children and youth, independently of lack of exercise and poor nutrition. In general, the more children use and are exposed to technology like cell phones and tablets, the more
likely they are to have physical ailments, as well as mental and emotional difficulties. They are more likely to get sick, have physical pains, depression, social and learning disabilities.
It would be wise for us as adults, and watch-keepers of the children in our care, to monitor the time spent on these electronic distractors and spend quality time outdoors or in fun interactive table games. We are certainly living in challenging times.
May God Bless your journey to good health,
Sandra Torres
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