Due to the pandemic children have been forced into a new relationship with technology. From March, in many countries of the world, this was the only link to an education, be it in the form of a laptop, chromebook or tablet (for the lucky ones) or via TV or radio programmes, in much of the developing world. The lucky ones, however, have also been burdened with some negative baggage. A new study has found that “screen time for school- aged children decreases mental imagery skills”. Sensory abilities are fundamental in childhood, and in learning skills that will be important throughout life, and need to be developed to the full. While they can be a positive tool they can equally stifle creativity and eventually lead to addiction. Finding the balance is hard, but with tools like the Blabloo and Geniora smartphones (www.blabloo.net/www.geniora.com) parents can manage the access that their child has to applications, via a parental app on their own phone, and also being able to freeze the screen of the device at any moment to enable them to do the creative things like playing. A parent can also set a filter to manage what web sites a child can access, ensuring that they do not access inappropriate content, and much more.
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p08k84jw/why-the-way-our-children-watch-screens-matters