Screen time for children

Meet Naima Nahid, a seven year-old. A first grader, she already takes selfies everyday, uploads them on Facebook (she has a Facebook account), gives about a dozen of check-ins in a month and enjoys playing video games on her mother’s tablet. “Without these, life would be boring and unimaginable,” she says.

Many parents, like those of Naima’s, don’t find anything wrong with it, oblivious of the harmful effects of too much screen time, often being hooked on screens themselves.

So for example, if your child is crying and seeking your attention, you are simply handing him your iPad. Steve Jobs, former CEO and figurehead of the company that developed iPad once said when he was asked whether his own children loved Apple’s iPad – “They haven’t used it. We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”

Steve Jobs was of course not the only parent who had to deal with such issues. Shahana Huda, who works in the field of media and communication, has a granddaughter, Nayantara, who is around 3 years old. She also struggles with the issue of limiting screen time. Nayantara, for example, often plays games on her iPad. …Read the entire article here