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Wednesday 19th February 2025 – Anonymous 10 To: Scrutiny Communications <Scrutiny@gov.je> Subject: Children and phones/iPad use
Dear team,
I would like to share my experience and impact of mobiles and devices for our children, now 12 and 7 years old.
Daily use of mobiles/iPads and playing games (15-45 min a day) gradually resulted in our children having big issues with their behaviour. They had difficulty controlling their emotions, had daily tantrums, were less interested in outdoor activities and had short temper. We recognised a pattern and would have 'tech free' days from time to time, which always helped.
For about 6 months now the younger daughter has not been allowed to use any devices (only occasionally, maybe once every 2 weeks for 20 minutes) and we have our child back! There has been a significant improvement in her being able to manage her emotions, better mood, improvement in concentration and being more creative at playtime. She has also stopped having nightmares.
Online homework at the age of 6 was not right for our younger daughter. The stress and tension which we experienced, on some occasions even cry, meant that we had to refuse to do online homework and requested the homework to be in a notebook
instead. Thankfully, the school was understanding and accommodated our request.
The older daughter started secondary school in September. Given she now walks to school and homework is done on apps, it was necessary for us to give her a mobile. It has been about 6 months in and we have learned what works and what does not. Again, the device initially clearly affected her behaviour at home and caused daily arguments. We are now very strict (no games, 15 min of chatting with friends and 30 min to do her homework), which seems to work.
Our children do not have iPads as they used to get too obsessed with these and their behaviour was too hard to manage.
Both children are now thriving academically and in personal life, and the parenting seems a lot easier!
I hope you find this helpful. Many thanks,
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