Σήμερα, και ειδικά τους τελευταίους μήνες λόγω της πανδημίας, τα παιδιά περνούν πολλές ώρες μπροστά στην οθόνη του κινητού τηλεφώνου τους, αντί να αλληλοεπιδρούν με τον πραγματικό κόσμο όπως έκαναν οι parents them when they were children. But what has happened in recent decades to justify such dramatic changes in the way people communicate and interact?
The international cybersecurity company ESET recently studied the relationship of parents and children with technology, and especially the cell phones phones, and found that the differences between the two groups are huge.
Η έρευνα της ESET σε parents παιδιών ηλικίας 10 έως 18 ετών στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο δείχνει ότι κατά μέσο όρο απόκτησαν το πρώτο τους κινητό τηλέφωνο στα 24 τους, με το 44% των ερωτηθέντων να αποκτούν για πρώτη φορά κινητό τηλέφωνο μετά τα 21.
In comparison, the average age at which the children of these parents acquired their first mobile phone was 11, with 73% having a mobile phone before reaching 12.
Getting a cell phone at a young age is just the tip of the iceberg. Not only do cell phones now play a much bigger role in children's development than in the past, but these devices also have a significant impact on almost every aspect of children's lives.
Take computers, for example: desktop computers really became a part of our everyday lives in the 1980s, with most of them installed in classrooms and home offices, at a time when most of today's parents were still students. These computers connected to the internet usually via dial-up, meaning that browsing capabilities were somewhat limited until the introduction of broadband connectionin the 1990s.
Today, children have more computing power in the palm of their hand than their parents had on a desktop computer, and they have access both high speed broadband and 4G networks.
This, in turn, automatically implies a huge change in what children can do with their mobile phones. Children of the 20th century relied on home phones and later on simple conventional cell phones to communicate, while children today can communicate with their contacts on messaging platforms and social networks through text, images, videos and many other media.
In addition, modern smartphones ενσωματώνουν ψηφιακές κάμερες που ξεπερνούν κατά πολύ τις δυνατότητες των φωτογραφικών συσκευών που χρησιμοποιούσαν οι γονείς τους, μαζί με αρκετή μνήμη για να αποθηκεύουν ατελείωτα μουσικά κομμάτια, φωτογραφίες και podcast.
Let us now add to these possibilities and the huge variety of applications that allow video streaming, games and content sharing and we will understand why children want to spend their time in front of a screen.
In fact, children now have a computer, a camera, a stereo, a video player and much more in a single device that is available 24 hours a day. Therefore, it is difficult to accuse them of being overly connected to their phones. However, it is important to make sure that they use these devices safely.
It may seem difficult to manage the many functions of a child's mobile device, but that need not discourage you.
According to researchers της ESET, η εγκατάσταση ενός αξιόπιστου προγράμματος mobile security μπορεί να προστατέψει το κινητό τηλέφωνο του παιδιού σας από τους κινδύνους στους οποίους εκτίθεται. Αυτό, σε συνδυασμό με την κατανόηση των συνηθειών των παιδιών σας και του ειλικρινούς διαλόγου σχετικά με το πώς να παραμείνουν ασφαλή στο διαδίκτυο, θα επιτρέψει την αποτελεσματική εποπτεία του χρόνου που περνάνε μπροστά στην οθόνη του κινητού.
The developments in its field technology are rapid, which means that children today are growing up in a world that has almost nothing in common with the one that older generations knew. This is why it is important that we as parents become aware of these differences so that we can better understand our own children as well as the issues they face in their daily lives.