Vadodara: Two Minors Leave Home in 10 Days Linked to Mobile Addiction: Psychiatrist Urges Parental Role Modeling for Reduced Screen Time

Within a span of 10 days in Vadodara, incidents of children running away from home due to scolding by parents have come to light. While the police search for the missing children, what leads to conflicts between children and parents? Spoke with a renowned psychologist in Vadodara and made an effort to understand the behavior of children.

Leaving Home Due to Mobile Addiction

Dr. Chirag Barot, Associate Professor at Baroda Medical College, revealed that instances of parents giving cell phones to children and subsequently forcing them to leave home have emerged due to mobile addiction. The root cause of these issues is excessive use of mobile phones. Many children start playing games as soon as they wake up in the morning.

Addiction to Games and Social Media

It was further disclosed that parents’ mobile phones mostly contain 1.5 to 2 GB of data. As a result, children start playing games and watching reels early in the morning. Consequently, the data gets exhausted by afternoon. When the data gets exhausted, children become restless, wondering what to do next. They develop an addiction to games and reels. When they are unable to use their mobile phones, parents get angry. This leads to loss of appetite, increased anxiety, and the primary reason behind all these issues is excessive use of mobile phones.

Need for Parents to Role Model

It was emphasized that during the time of Corona, online studies were going on, and during that time, parents had to give mobile phones and tablets to children out of compulsion. But now, the consequences are visible. Now, it has become very difficult for children to leave their mobile phones. If parents also reduce the use of mobile phones for a little while, or use them less, then children’s attraction towards mobile phones will decrease. Slowly, the attraction towards games, Instagram chats, and placing reels on Instagram will decrease.

Increased Misuse Due to Excessive Mobile Usage

It has been increasingly noticed that, nowadays, there have been cases where even 16-17-year-old adolescents have become influencers. There’s always something new to see on reels. The thought process and creativity of children aged 16-17 are at the same level. They don’t see the world in the same way anymore. The pressure to bring new content every day creates stress. If new content isn’t found, there’s stress. If content is found but receives fewer likes and comments, there’s stress. All this stress leads to irritability. They don’t talk to anyone, get angry with parents and relatives, indulge in arguments. Their frustration increases. The fundamental cause of all this is the misuse of mobile phones. Misuse has increased due to excessive mobile usage.

Foster a Tech-Free Environment around Children

It has been observed that we have created a highly technological environment at home. TV has become a smart TV, smartphones are smart, lights are controlled by Alexa, and are turned on and off. So, children don’t get any opportunity to engage in physical activity. We don’t even give them this opportunity. Encourage children to put their foot outside the house, engage in outdoor games. Give children inspiration to go outside. The more a child steps out of the house, the less they will be involved in the misuse of mobile phones. It is necessary to foster a tech-free environment.

Teach Children the Difference Between Truth and Falsehood

It has been said that children’s screen time has increased after Corona. As a result, 5 to 7 children who misuse mobile phones come every month. We should first change our attitude and then give advice to our children. After this, you should use an app from your mobile phone that you can monitor their mobile phone with, such as what they are doing on their mobile phone, how much time they spend, what they download, etc. Children need to understand at some age what is good and what is bad. Knowledge of this should be given. It’s content that educates, is balanced, and is filled with stress. Children need to understand this issue. Create a free environment at home, like what children like and dislike. If children use your phone, gift them something they like, so that children are encouraged to behave differently again.