DHAKA, May 31, 2024 (BSS) - Joharin is the two-year old daughter of Reza and
Khadija. She just loves to watch cartoons on smartphone. Whenever the baby
cries, her parents immediately handover their smartphone to her and it works
like magic. Joharin stops crying as soon as she gets the smartphone. It is
often seen that the girl does not want to eat, mother Khadija tries to feed
her quickly, keeping the baby busy with the smartphone.
 
At the end, the situation is such that eating, sleeping, playing -- she wants
a smartphone for everything. Her mother suddenly discovered one afternoon
that Joharin's right eye was looking unusual. She rushed to the doctor with
her tiny tot. After completing all procedures, the doctor said that the
cornea of Joharin's right eye had moved due to constant staring at the
smartphone for a long time. As a result, she was looking cross-eyed.

In recent research, it was seen that on an average a child in Bangladesh uses
a smartphone for around three hours a day. A significant number of children
in the country use smartphones for even five hours a day on an average. The
research found that the excessive use of smartphones by the parents,
encourages their children to get addicted to the devices.
 
According to paediatricians and mental health experts, children easily get
addicted to smartphones through the excessive use of the device, and it is
leaving a huge negative impact on the child's early social and emotional
development, hampering the development of their multifaceted skills.
 
According to the latest data of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory
Commission (BTRC), the number of mobile phone users in the country is 183.8
million. Among them, currently the number of internet users is 13 crore 19
lakh, which is 32 percent of the total population. Meanwhile, 11 crore 97
lakh people use the internet on their mobile phone, which is 90.79 percent of
the total internet users. Also, the number of smartphone users is 53 million.

According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) statistics, as of 2022,
the total number of children aged five to 17 years in the country is 3.99
million. Among them, 41 percent above the age of five use the Internet.
 
Recently, a group of researchers from Jahangirnagar University studied the
effect of smartphone use on children. It shows that in Bangladesh, parents
who use smartphones for three hours or more every day, the risk of their
children becoming addicted to the phones is about 90 times higher than that
of children who do not use the devices.

Moreover, 92 percent of children use a parent's smartphone and eight percent
of children have their own. In this research, it is also seen that whenever
the child is crying, does not want to eat or whenever the parents want to
finish their own work, they give smartphones to their child to keep him/her
busy. The child is calmed down by showing cartoons on the phones.

About the negative effects of smartphone use on children, one of the members
of the research team Professor Dr Mohammad Nazmul Haque said: "Smartphone
addiction has become a big problem nowadays. Smartphone-addicted children are
500 times more likely to develop mental health problems and 230 times more
likely to have physical health problems than non-phone-addicted children. It
has a variety of detrimental effects on the physical and mental health and
cognitive development of pre-school children. However, 50 percent of mothers
believe that their children can learn a lot using smartphones."
 
Psychologists identify this attraction of children and teenagers towards
mobile phones and the internet as internet addiction or mobile phone
addiction. In this context, paediatrician and president of Bangladesh
Children's Physicians Association Professor Dr Manjur Hossain said: "Dopamine
neurotransmitter is released from brain cells while watching TV, mobile games
or any kind of virtual entertainment. This dopamine transmits a good feeling
to our mind. As a result, we become addicted very easily."

Meanwhile, Associate Professor of Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College,
Dr Farzana Robin identifies internet addiction as not a disease but a major
problem responsible for many diseases.

Expert doctors are citing smartphone addiction as dangerous as drug
addiction. According to a study by Public Health of England, if young
children keep their eyes on mobile phones, television, video games or
computers for a long time, they may suffer from inferiority complex, lose
mental balance including depression and become addicted to pornography.

During this time, there is a risk of various complications including
irritability, headache, watery eyes, loss of appetite, obesity, behavioural
changes and loss of vision. In addition, there is a direct relationship
between video game addiction and autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit
disorder, depression and severe depression in children and adolescents.

According to mental health experts, excessive internet addiction causes
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, disrupts
language development and increases the risk of damage to various parts of the
eye, including the cornea-retina, and the highly harmful radiation from
screens disrupts their brain development.

Renowned mental health expert of the country and National Health Institute
Prof Meghla Sarkar said many times parents' hand over a harmful thing like a
mobile phone to the child to control his stubbornness or to reduce his
mischief or to feed him.

In order to reduce a temporary problem, they are getting involved in a big
problem as mobile has a kind of addictive element. So naturally, when a child
gets such an attractive and stimulating phone in his/her hands, their
tendency to become addicted to it increases compared to adults. Therefore,
handing over a mobile phone to a child at an early age means compromising
with the elements of nature and environment from which his mental development
and social skills were supposed to be formed.
 
Therefore, in order to ensure the mental health protection of a mobile
addicted child, the parents must first be aware that its excessive use is
hindering the development of the child's mental health. In this case, first
of all, as parents, they should stop handing mobile phones to the child for
the purpose of playing or feeding them, try to create interest in him for
socializing with outside children and above all to ensure that children
participate in sports and creative social activities from an early age.
 
Many people think that children and adolescents cannot have mental illness.
However, scientific studies show that children are at risk of developing
mental problems right from birth.

Generally, children and teenagers of our country are suffering from various
mental problems or diseases. Notable among these are hyperactivity,
behavioural problems, bedwetting disorders, school retention/school phobias,
restlessness or tension disorders, anorexia and food aversion disorders, and
child development problems: autism spectrum disorders.

Therefore, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ensured all
the rights of children in the constitution to protect the future of the
country. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her
government is conducting child nutrition-health-education programs with the
aim of ensuring the overall development and empowerment of children in the
implementation of the Vision 2021.

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Seventh Five Year
Plan has set targets for child health, education, nutrition, water and
sanitation. Also, through the establishment of the 'National Council for
Women and Children Development' (NCWCD), policy-making guidance is being
given on the safety and security of women and children.