The winter vacation is approaching, and many electronic "child-accompanying artifacts" have appeared one after another.

Beware that excessive contact with the screen affects children's brain function

Guangming Daily reporter Yang Sa

With the arrival of winter vacation, some digital products have become the "child-friendly artifacts" for parents, including many digital devices under the banner of smart learning and intelligent learning. Can these terminal products help children learn better? What impact does it have on your physical and mental health if you expose your child too much to the screen?

Students from Jiangyong County, Yongzhou, Hunan Province, Hunan read network security publicity materials. Photo by Tian Rurui/Picture by Guangming

1. Is the electronic "baby-accompanying artifact" really useful?

My son, who is in kindergarten, has known many Chinese characters, which makes Yu Dan very excited: "Strive to know 2,000 characters before going to elementary school, and work harder this winter vacation." How did you learn it? Yu Dan has a lot of experience: "Now they are all electronic, and they use learning machines to let him learn in games."

With the arrival of winter vacation, children have more time at home, which means more time and opportunities to get in touch with digital products. Many digital products have attracted the attention of parents under the banner of "a magic tool for accompanying children".

Sun Hongyan, director of the Institute of Children's Research of China Youth Research Center, introduced that many electronic products similar to learning machines have the function of expanding learning, such as downloading more rich content than textbooks, which allows children to see more in-depth related to teaching content. For more extensive information, some contents are also accompanied by pictures and texts, which look more vivid. But these cannot replace students' classroom learning. "During the winter vacation, parents can use multimedia learning machines to stimulate their interest with the learning methods their children like. Some parents do not have the time or ability to provide relevant tutoring or help in their children's learning, and using the learning machines is a good choice. For example, Let children check information, check words, practice pronunciation and recitation through learning machines. However, we should give special reminders that parents and children should not rely on learning machines, and should pay special attention to avoid children from engaging in other entertainment activities through learning machines. "

Why are parents and children prone to these digital products? Guo Haixia, head of the Beijing Youth Mental Health Education and Quality Development Center, believes that some parents hope that digital products can support their children's learning improvement or reduce their burdens, so that they can be freed from the task of managing their children's learning. For children, partly it is to help them improve their studies and grades quickly, and partly it is to feel that even if they don’t like learning, the relaxation and freedom in front of electronic devices are more often criticized, accused, and asked to be comfortable in front of parents and teachers than in front of parents and teachers. Much more. There are also some more flexible children who can use digital products or devices to switch to their favorite platforms or content at will, and convert their learning time into their own entertainment time.

Police officers from the Daishan County Public Security Bureau of Zhoushan, Zhejiang taught network security knowledge to local middle school students. Xinhua News Agency

"It is unrealistic to blindly prohibit children from using electronic products and digital devices. Children have poor self-control ability and must have certain rules or standards." Qian Dongming, deputy director of the National Institute of Macro Policy of Education of East China Normal University, said, " Many digital products now claim to be "learning tools" and are suspected of exaggerated advertising. Most products that claim to be artificial intelligence actually only have digital characteristics. Children lack the ability to judge whether they are correct or not, and they have many digital devices. The content attached to it cannot be distinguished, so it needs to be reviewed and approved, and there must be access standards."

2. Life, which is deeply influenced by electronic products, only breadth, but lacks depth

Although digital products have some benefits, they also give children more risks of screen exposure.

Qian Dongming believes that the most direct problem for children to touch screens too much is vision loss. "Now, better learning products have blue light-proof configurations and automatic timing, such as watching once a week, 40 minutes to 1 hour each time. The computer will be automatically shut down when the time is time. Parents can also specify which video websites should be set to prohibit, etc., to turn electronic products into digital learning terminals instead of entertainment terminals. When using them, you must also ensure sufficient light."

In Sun Hongyan's view, exposing her child to the screen for a long time will have many negative effects. "Some children are not good at self-management and lack self-control ability, and parents are also negligent in management. Children play games secretly through learning machines, etc., and even develop Internet dependence, resulting in too long online time; some children or parents lack security awareness, in information Registration is easy to relax your vigilance, which leads to multiple personal information leakage; some children are too lazy to explore and try on their own when encountering learning problems, and only want to find answers on the learning machine, which leads to children's over-reliance on the learning machine, which is not conducive to independent thinking. Also Some learning machines are not standardized and the knowledge content is of varying quality, such as inaccurate pronunciation, untimely update of data, and errors, which will mislead students."

Jiangxi Yingtan No. 10 Primary School launched a publicity campaign for "Cybersecurity into the community and into the campus". Photo by Li Ang/Picture by Guangming

Guo Haixia introduced a study data: A 4,500 study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that 9- or 10-year-old children who spend more than 7 hours a day watching electronic screens will experience cerebral cortex. Signs of premature thinning and poor scores on language and reasoning quizzes. The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of humans processing sensory information. "Although the current research has not further demonstrated what negative impact these changes in brain structure will have on children in the future, one thing is certain - long-term use of electronic products such as tablets will have an impact on children's brain development." She said, "In addition, it may affect the child's memory and attention, and the development of a number of abilities such as language, exercise, and social interaction."

"If there is not enough time to think deeply, children's creativity will become worse. While children use electronic products, they are also consuming the energy of life. Experimental research has shown that the continuous stimulation of multitasking on the brain will affect the brain. Function. That is to say, if the children's world is filled with electronic products, there will be no blank time, and without blank time, it will be difficult to have the moment of inspiration. The lives of children who are deeply influenced by electronic products are now , only breadth, lack depth." Guo Haixia said.

3. During the holidays, spend more time with your children and play in the real world

How can children better use digital products?

Sun Hongyan believes that parents should pay special attention to the following points when guiding their children to use learning electronic products during the winter vacation: they should learn more about their children's learning situation, use the learning machine to browse content, discuss learning effects and difficulties with their children, and learn more when their children learn. Companionship, etc., to cultivate children’s correct use of learning machines through these family education behaviors. Many learning machines are also Internet devices, so parents should not ignore management because they attach importance to learning. When giving the learning mechanism to children, we must set good rules and manage them well. For example, discuss with your children to determine the time and place of use together, inspire your children to manage themselves more, and let them rationally treat new learning equipment such as learning machines from an early age, and use these Internet-based devices as learning tools rather than toys. "You also need to provide safety education for your children. Parents must first have safety awareness and understand the possible safety hazards of new learning equipment. Through parent-child communication and practical experience opportunities, children can understand that there may also be unsafe factors in learning machines and teach them to protect them. Personal information security, etc..”

Students from Huayuan Primary School in Xiayuan Town, Rugao, Jiangsu Province learn network security knowledge through writing. Photo by Xu Hui/Picture by Guangming

Guo Haixia reminds that parents’ role models and teaching by words and deeds are important factors that affect children’s values. The time and content of parents using electronic products every day will have a subtle impact on their children. Parents can explore the information world in electronic products with their children, cultivate their children's information identification ability, guide their children to correctly understand and evaluate information, and cultivate their children's trust in the authoritative information of health science.

"In fact, what children like most is the efficient companionship and interaction between parents. During the winter vacation, children's outdoor activities should be increased with the company of their parents. Some people say that many children do not use electronic products very much because they have been using electronic products for a long time. You can play. If a child can’t play anymore, it means that his imagination and creativity have been invisibly damaged. "Guo Haixia said.

Qian Dongming reminds you to be careful of the "information cocoon" caused by artificial intelligence. If you blindly let your child only look at what he likes to read, the child's vision will become narrow, and life may be guided and planned by artificial intelligence. Although we should not resist or fear the development of intelligence and digitalization, in the process of our children's growth, we must not be full of digital devices or electronic products, but we need to contact the real world.

"Guangming Daily" (13th edition, January 30, 2024)