2023-10-25 08:43:52
Promoting the digital health of minors by reducing the use of screens through raising awareness among parents is the objective of “Change the plan”, a campaign promoted by the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) and the Spanish Agency for the Protection of Children. Data (AEPD).
Both entities have agreed on the need to raise awareness among parents about the use of screens to try to limit the physical, mental, sexual and social risks entailed by intensive and uncontrolled use by minors.
The initiative of the AEP and the AEDP promotes the use of the Family Digital Plan, a platform presented last September, which contains all the information necessary for the appropriate use of digital media by minors aimed at families and pediatricians.
Proposals based on scientific recommendations
Specifically, the plan that both promote contains proposals based on scientific recommendations that each family can select for good use of screens by minors and the rest of the family. Some are classified by age and others are general for everyone.
In this way, each family can establish a personalized plan adapted to their circumstances. And the recommendation of pediatricians is that parents study it before establishing limits, because they will also be for them.
The AEP insists in a note that technology “impacts health at all levels – physical, mental, social and sexual – and at any age”, however it highlights that Adolescents and children are an age group “especially vulnerable as they are developing“.
Video of the AEP and AEPD campaign
More exposure=More risk
In this sense, an article cited by pediatricians states that a longer time spent exposed to screens is associated “with a greater risk of insomnia, a greater risk of depressive symptoms, and impairment of face-to-face social interaction.”
Furthermore, experts insist, pornography consumption at an early age “can cause risky sexual behaviors to become normalized”.
Added to all this is that parents have not received information about how technology impacts the health of their children, as shown in a survey published in 2021 by the Public Health magazine, to which the AEP refers.
According to the data from this survey, parents who have received training and information about the impact of screens reduce the time their children use these digital media more than the rest.
Hence, the AEP and the AEPD want to raise awareness through “Change the plan” about the importance of establishing family routines in the use of technologies.
The plan for parents and pediatricians
The Family Digital Plan includes recommendations based on medical and scientific evidence such as, among others, turning off electronic devices that no one is using and avoiding the use of two or more devices at the same time, encouraging physical exercise as a family and avoiding screen supports for the stroller. or for the car.
Infographic related to the AEP and AEPD digital family plan.
But the plan also includes establishing exposure time limits of screens by minors: from 0 to 2 years old, their use should be avoided; from 3 to 5 years, less than an hour a day; and from 5 years old, less than two hours of digital entertainment a day.
Likewise, the AEP and the APD want this personalized plan to be a tool for pediatricians in the consultation so that they can “inform and accompany” families in promoting healthy digital habits, detect risks early, as well as derived pathologies, and treat cases appropriately.
In fact, the plan has a specific section for professionals that explains why it is important and how to use it in the consultation.
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