A nurse is concerned about a trend in the United States: parents waiting for their child to celebrate their 14the birthday to give him a smartphone.
“Scientifically, it’s not a good thing to do,” Melanie Hempe told Fox News. “It’s not a good health thing to give your child a phone in eighth grade.” [secondaire 2]. The risks do not outweigh the benefits.”
“We can’t afford to keep getting it wrong,” added the woman who also founded ScreenStrong, an organization that fights to limit screen time among young people. “It’s not pretty. It’s not to be taken lightly. It’s serious, and we shouldn’t be relying on a nursery rhyme to raise our children.”
Melanie Hempe pointed out that mental health issues are very prevalent among adolescents, so now would not be the ideal time to offer a smartphone with access to social networks.
Adolescents “take higher risks before the frontal cortex, the judgment center of their brain, is developed,” Hempe said. “So their emotional center develops before the frontal cortex, or the reasoning center.”
“They are looking for more provocative content,” she continued. […] Algorithms come into play and they are exposed to the worst content of the moment at the most vulnerable stage and […] impressionable of their development.”
Vulnerability
Ms. Hempe also found that young people aged 14 to 18 are at the peak of their sexual interest and are more prone to addictive behavior.
“We are giving our children one of the most powerful dopamine devices during the most vulnerable stages of development, when their guard is lowest,” she argued.
Melanie Hempe would like the age to get a smartphone to be 18.
