Children's Addiction to Smartphones and Parental Control: From the Viewpoint of the Faculty of Education for Women

Abstract

Recently, internet addiction among children is one of the most widespread phenomena in society. Parents resort to buying smart phones, especially during COVID-19 pandemic, for their children so as to keep them busy and, parents in turn, can preoccupy themselves with other work. Children do not have a normal free life seeing that they lack social interaction and playgrounds. They spend their leisure time boring, moreover it is online education that has forced them to learn through the internet using smartphones. All of the previously mentioned elements are a serious problem for children and their health. Thus, the present study aims at identifying the reasons that drive children to search for an alternative to compensate for the void in their lives, a smartphone addiction fills that void. Such behaviours result in parents neglecting their children and the latter waste their time playing video games, feeling that he/she is professional and leader over others, unwillingness to leave the house, not mixing with friends, nervous behaviours when the Internet or electricity go off, aversion, improper behaviour, low school achievement, anxiety, staying up late, disordered eating, laziness, consumption of their energies and abilities, and gradually falling ill. Parents must take care of their children and create time for them, ask about their interests and tendencies, fill their void and even play games with them. Every child needs to know that his/her family is not oblivious to them considering that fine and supportive words fuel them to display the best version of themselves. The findings of the research revealed that children's use of smartphones does not develop their skills or refine their personalities, rather it destroys their psyches and keeps them isolated, by 96% among the study participants.