As parents, we have three basic duties towards children. The first and most important of these is to 'protect' the child. The second is to meet their needs and the third is to help them meet good people. (good story, good person, good experience) When we say protection, we usually think of physical protection. Today, one of the areas where we need to protect children the most is 'media', which is the area where psychological protection is needed the most. Because when media is used uncontrolled, it turns into an area that poisons children with its content. It would not be an exaggeration to say that if a parent does not control the media that enters the child's mind, it means that he does not control the food that enters his stomach.
The harm of the media is basically of two types: There are what it takes and what it gives. While the media takes away development from children, what they give is violence. This leads to several things in the child;
1) Modeling violence 2) Normalizing violence 3) Desensitization to violence
Of course, media is not an exclusive area than TV. As children begin to grow up, they also begin to become acquainted with the internet at the same rate. Over time, these children may become avid YouTube users, where they access the most images and videos. But this is not an innocent area either, and there is a concept related to this that we call 'Youtube Trauma'. Children from here; They can watch horror videos, birth videos, videos with sexual content and violent-war videos. To minimize all these contaminations, a family password can be obtained when using the internet. This encryption automatically filters the content.
How long should the media usage time be?
Worldwide research and the Pedagogical Association's 'Child Education' in Turkey. According to the article 'and Screen'; Although the screen is not recommended at all in the first three years of children's lives, when their brain and language development is the fastest, 20-30 minutes a day at the age of 3-6, 40-50 minutes at the age of 6-9, 1 hour at the age of 9-12, and 2 hours a day at around 12. Screen use is recommended.
When is it recommended for children to get a phone?
One of the most common questions we receive from parents about phones is "All their friends have them, they want them to." Shall we buy it? is the question. Considering the developmental period characteristics, phones are not recommended for children before the age of 15. Especially which is never recommended for ages 10 and younger. During these processes, smart watches can be used depending on the family's communication needs with the child. Even if it is compulsory to buy a phone before the age of 15;
You should make sure that your child knows the password of the phone, that you set limits on how much time he can spend on the phone (taking other electronic devices into consideration), and that you educate and control him about safe social media use. You need to be sure.
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