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Experts Warn Against Dangerous New Trend That’s Similar To Giving Children ‘Cocaine’

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As more Maltese children are given mobile phones and tablets at a younger age, concerns are being raised as to any effects that this might have. And now that we have an idea thanks to international studies, it’s not looking that good.

Mandy Saligari, a rehab clinic specialist in the UK, said that giving your child a smartphone is like “giving them a gram of cocaine“. She went on to say that not a lot of people are aware of how much screen time can end up being a vehicle for addiction in young people. Chinese researchers call smartphone and tablet screens “digital heroin“, and Dr. Peter Whybrow, the director of neuroscience at UCLA, calls them “electronic cocaine”.

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Earlier this year, the news broke that in the USA, children as young as 13 were checking in to “smartphone rehabs” and being treated for addiction to mobile phones. The founder of one of these centres in Seattle, Dr. Hilarie Cash, told Sky News, “When you start handing these devices to young children and they’re distracted by the movement, the colour and sound coming from this device, that is mesmerising enough that it will override all those natural instincts that children actually have for movement and exploration and social interaction.”

The number of children who use mobile phones and tablets all over the world keeps increasing at an alarming rate. Surveys suggest that the average age for UK children to own their own phone is seven, while 97% of US children under the age of four use mobile devices regardless of family income. And while these surveys are all from beyond our shores, smartphone addiction is unfortunately not too difficult to imagine even in Malta.

According to Lonely Planet, there are 130 mobile phones per 100 population in Malta… yes, that’s more than one phone per person. Even five years ago, surveys by the Malta Communications Authority were pointing to children being “completely hooked” on digital technology. In the 2012 surveys conducted around Malta, 97% of primary school children and 99% of secondary school children had internet access at home.

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Mandy Saligari’s initial comments about phones being compared to cocaine, however, come with a positive ending. “If you catch addiction early enough, you can teach children how to self-regulate between quiet, non-technology time, and free time,” she said. “So you don’t have to police them and tell them exactly what to do. It’s possible to enjoy periods of both quiet.”

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Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).

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