Experts have been warning for a long time and have never been more clear than today: the use of cell phones among minors must be well controlled. Moreover, full control, since they focus not only on the responsibility of families and schools, but also on other institutions and companies. Apple included.
The group of medical experts from the CoMB (Col·legi de Metges de Barcelona) has indicated the positions to be taken on all these issues, outlining the main ones. health risks What using screens at a certain age can lead to. They even raised the eternal doubt about the ideal age to give them their first iPhone.
The impacts on the health of the youngest
We know that spending many hours in front of an iPhone or other device with a screen can pose some risks to eye health, as well as cause dizziness and headaches. However, in the aforementioned study, experts focus on other impacts that prolonged use of smartphones can cause, especially among younger people.
The first is that the little ones can see cognitive and emotional development affectedwhich can end up causing addiction problems in the very short term and in the medium-long term they could end up generating eating disorders, communication problems and even anxiety.
Likewise, they also talk about physical problems derived from a sedentary lifestyle, such as obesity or sleep problems due to visual fatigue and acceleration caused by digital stimuli.
What do you recommend to families?
Parental control with usage restrictions is one of the fundamental elements
Among the many recommendations of the experts, there is a series of opinions that should not be new to us, given that they are recommendations that we have already read from other professionals in the field. In short, this:
- Greater caution from 0 to 6 yearsdiscouraging the use of devices with screens at these ages and always accompanying them in the period of 6 to 12 years.
- Don’t give away your first smartphone before the age of 13-14 and, when the time comes, combine it with a commitment so that the young person not only behaves well in general with family, friends and the school environment, but also uses the device responsibly.
- Use parental controls like the one offered by Apple on iOS and which also includes certain functions such as ‘Use Time’, which allows you to know how long the device has been used and which applications it has consulted.
- Keep a close eye on minimum ages on social media and ensure that young people reach this minimum. If they comply, they recommend that the type of content they upload to these platforms be controlled to minimize the risk of overexposure of their privacy.
- Promote other activities leisure and socialization that goes beyond the use of electronic devices.
There are also duties for the rest of the people involved
Apple is also among those responsible who must act, experts say
Far from placing all responsibility on minors and their parents, CoMB also takes into account other fundamental actors in which cell phone use is responsible and suitable for minors. And among them are administrations, operators and developers.
For the public administrations They call for the creation of standards for effective age verification, as well as the promotion of cell phone-free spaces and training from childhood in the use of these devices. And not only for responsible use, but also for knowing how to use the tools correctly.
For the telephone companies They are asking for the implementation of parental control which starts from the SIM. They suggest the creation of special cards for minors which already have content filtering as standard.
Finally and above all, at platform developers They are also asked to limit minors’ access to inappropriate content and to ensure that companies cannot use their usage and browsing data to create advertising profiles. This concerns Apple and Google as well as the big companies behind iOS and Android and big companies like Meta, TikTok or X.
It must be said in any case that There are already certain protocols and legal initiatives to control all these aspects, both by the educational centers and by the autonomous communities and the national government. Of course, everything is still in development. For now, we know that Apple is already responding to the requests currently requested.
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