fbpx

Viral Video Shows The Dark Side Of Kids’ Smartphone Use

girl sitting on chair

Viral Video Shows The Dark Side Of Kids’ Smartphone Use

By Movieguide® Contributor

A new video showing the negative effects smartphones can have on kids has gone viral, with parents around the world praising its powerful message. 

“How much life is consumed by your phone?” Siroko, a Spain-based sports apparel company posted on TikTok, along with a video of a young girl who receives a smartphone for Christmas. 

She soon becomes addicted to the phone — taking selfies, playing games, using it while she eats meals, and getting distracted by it while doing her homework. Things start to take a turn for the worse as her addiction deepens. 

The girl begins falling asleep in class, accidentally comes across pornography while scrolling on her phone, and eventually becomes the target of cyberbullying. Her parents try to take her phone away, but she throws a screaming fit. 

Finally, the girl sees her bike in the garage and decides to take a ride. The video ends with her on her bike, with a huge smile on her face. 

The video has been shared across TikTok and Instagram, and parents are reacting strongly to its message. 

“Why did this make me cry???” one parent wrote, while another lamented, “Our sweet children deserve better than this!”

Siroko’s video is a reflection of many studies that have looked into children and teenagers’ attachments to their phones. 

A 2016 survey reported that “50 percent of teens ‘feel addicted’ to mobile devices, and 59 percent of their parents agree that their kids are addicted.”

“Additionally, parents and children are concerned about the effects mobile device use has on their daily lives — from driving to the dinner table — with over one-third of the families in the … poll arguing about it daily,” the report continued. 

Movieguide® previously reported on the dangers of smartphones, particularly for young people:

Social psychologist and NYU professor Jonathan Haidt urges parents to keep their middle schoolers away from smartphones. 

“We’ve got to let kids get through at least early puberty. Get this all out of middle school. Let’s really protect middle schoolers’ brains. Give them a flip phone if you want to communicate with them, not a smartphone,” Haidt said while appearing on FOX & FRIENDS. 

He explained that smartphones “lock you in” in a way that flip phones don’t due to the lack of easy access to social media platforms. 

Haidt also shared statistics that show the steep decline in mental health once young people start regularly using smartphones. 

“For girls, their mental health from 2000 to 2010, 2011 is actually pretty stable,” he explained. “Then, all of a sudden, around 2013, we have a very sharp curve where the girls get very, very depressed and especially [turn to] self-harm. Self-harm rates go up more than 100%. For the pre-teen girls, it’s closer to 200%, so something was happening to girls, and it seems to be related to social media.”

Haidt said that boys are also “doing much worse,” adding, “[with smartphones], they get more and more onto video games. They spend more and more time on screens, so their mental health does get worse.”


Watch DISNEY'S THE KID
Quality: - Content: +3
Watch THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (2024)
Quality: - Content: +1