Parental Control on Time Spent on Electronics Many teenagers in today's day and age would love to know what they’re being monitored and limited to, but is that what is really best for them? Parents should be allowed to limit their child’s time on the phone and any electronics because, of the consequences that it might have on their mental and physical health. Some people believe that not limiting screen time is good, and it can be. Being online can benefit us in many different ways, whether you are strengthening your hand-eye coordination by playing video games, using education games, reading up on the news, or even learning a new skill. Television offers educational channels for toddlers and children that focus on letters, numbers, problem-solving, teaching common things like sharing, and so much more. However, when parents do not limit their teens' phone usage it could lead to physical health deteriorating. Your teens’ physical health can suffer consequences when not limiting time on electronics. Teens and children of all ages can and are become sedentary, in other words, they suffer from obesity. Healthychildren.org writes, “Teens who watch more than 5 hours of TV per day, are 5 times more likely to be overweight then teens who watch 0 to 2 hours.” Knowing this information, not only can TV cause harm to physical health, it can harm mental health as well. Social media and video games as well are causing both. 20% of teens spend more than 5 hours a day in front of their screens. 43% of those teens are more likely to become obese because they are twice as likely to drink anything that has sugar or is cheap. In addition to this, they are also suffering from sleep problems, children are getting so caught up in TV, social media, and video games that they begin to lose track of time. Dr. Anjalee Galion quotes, “Teenagers have a natural tendency to go to bed late and sleep late so, too much screen time before bed can make it more difficult for them to go to sleep and have enough sleep before waking up to the demands of an academic day.” Teen wasting their day away on social media changes their whole sleeping schedule. On average teens usually get between 7 and 7 ½ hours of sleep, when we are really supposed to be getting 9 to 91/2. The more teenagers spend time on electronics their sleep schedule gets shorter and shorter. Less sleep is proven to make it harder to get back into the routine of school which is at least 7 hours a day. Furthermore, physical health has many consequences. It can cause relationships with family or friends to drift apart, obesity, diabetes, and even mental health problems. As I said in the previous paragraph, teenagers often lose track of time when they are on their devices for so long. Losing that significant amount of time affects others around that person. It is said that when a teen is so addicted to their phone or electronic they experience withdrawal, which can be taken out on everyone around them even themselves. When this happens and they are not allowed access to the internet they become irritable. That irritability affects their mental health and makes them feel such a rage that’s hard to control. When teenagers or anyone with an underdeveloped brain with uncontrollable hormones is addicted to something it’s hard to control and often makes others around them uncomfortable. Teenagers can feel this and tend to act out in anger even more which can lead to isolation and depression. So in addition to physical health, there is severe mental health issues that have consequences, due to lack of screen time. Watching television, going on social media, and especially video games are a mental escape for most people, whether it's from reality or for stress, anxiety, depression, ect., but that is not an acceptable way to relive yourself. Rcg.org wrote, “For a few fleeting moments, the players “lose themselves” in the games as they feel the bliss and release of being control.” While it is okay to use it as an escape from time to time, at some point you may go to far. This is happens when you don’t speak about what you're feeling and what’s going on and how you feel. It could and can make your mental health worsen. When teenagers use video games as an escape they are not letting someone know about how they feel, they use that game to get away from the problem and not helping solve it. Therefore physical and mental health are two major things that happen in consequences from not limiting the amount of time on the phone. It affects physical health from higher chances of obesity, and lack of sleep, to mental health from using video games as an escape. All of these are terrible consequences that happen in today's world and make teenagers more susceptible.
