TAMPA, Fla. — We know kids spend too much time on their phones, scrolling through videos, social media, or playing online games for hours. All of this is impacting their mental health.
“When I first started this, all we had was a gut feeling that it was a bad idea to put 100 million people and 100 million choices into the pockets of 14-year-olds and expect them to daily make good choices,” said Chris McKenna, a digital expert and founder of Protect Young Eyes.
WATCH: Digital expert shares tips to safeguard kids' mental health online
His organization helps families navigate the dangers of the digital world and create safer online spaces for children. McKenna believes handing a child a smart phone with no boundaries can be very risky and addictive, including online games.
He spoke with ABC Action News anchor Wendy Ryan about those dangers.
“Certain games that look innocent and fun have very addictive qualities. The big three being Minecraft, Fortnite and Roblox,” explained McKenna.
He continued “Roblox is 40 million games, with hundreds of millions of people using it every single month, and you just dropped your 10-year-old off at a playground with all of them.”
The more addicted a child gets to their phone, the more emotionally sensitive they become when it comes to any kind of criticism, McKenna told Ryan.
“Those that have the most number of pick-ups and the most amount of screen time have a hyper-sensitivity to feedback from those around them in the real world," McKenna said. "And have a lessening of impulse control. So now we're not just talking about behaviors. We're talking about changes in neurology, as a result of that amount of digital interaction."
McKenna believes those changes in emotions and behaviors reflect the real physical changes going on in that child developing brain.
“Every social media platform that kids can't put down was built with the teenage limbic system in mind. That, ‘I want to explore. I want to be noticed. I want to be popular.’ Those are all limbic system impulses around the question of, ‘Am I loved?’ Which is the main question that that part of the brain is asking in every human being all day long,” McKenna explained.
So many parents may be wondering, what is the answer?
“Delay is the way is not a no tech strategy. It's a slow tech strategy. We're all about right tech, right kid, right time,” McKenna said.
McKenna said that “right kid” is important because every child is different.
“What might be the right tech for a son at age 14, may not be the right tech for another son at age 14. Right kid. Right tech, right time,” McKenna explained.
But he cautioned parents by saying, you cannot eliminate every digital risk in your child’s life. So, if you’ve already allowed your kid to have endless access to social media, it’s time for you to take a very active role.
“My response to that mom is now it's time to be ridiculous," McKenna said. "What do I mean by that? Ridiculously intentional, ridiculously frequent conversations, ridiculously direct conversations, ridiculously observant, ridiculously involved, ridiculously informed. Because to me, it's all about a balance of risk."
McKenna also warned about the increase in girls self-harming. He recommended that they constantly check their phones for their own safety. McKenna said it’s not an invasion of privacy as no under age child owns their own phone.
“Every digital device in every home is actually owned by parents, and kids just have the luxury of using them. That's what we call parent-led ownership," McKenna said.
You can learn more here at Protect Young Eyes.
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