It is a paradox of our digital future: we cannot withhold digital media from our children and adolescents, but we also cannot leave them alone with the influences and changes that digital media brings about.Children's brains develop over the first fifteen to sixteen years of their lives, and the outcomes - especially self-control and individual thinking - are essential for media savviness. But the early introduction of electronic devices can affect brain development, potentially reducing children's long-term ability to thrive in our digital world.This book, by medical and child-development experts, describes the critical stages of development and discusses what kinds of media and devices might be appropriate at different ages. Acknowledging that there is no one-size-fits-all answer, Growing Up Healthy offers parents a way to think through, step by step, what is best for the young person in their care.

A Harvard-trained psychiatrist and mom of 3 gives parents and educators the tech habits children need to achieve their full potential--and a 6-step plan to put them into action. You may have picked up on some warning signs: The more your 9-year-old son plays video games, the more distracted and irritable he becomes. Or maybe comparing her life to others on social media is leaving your teenaged daughter feeling down. Then there are the questions that are always looming: Should I limit screen time? Should I give my 11-year-old an iPhone? The Tech Solution is a to-the-point resource for parents and educators who want the best approach for raising kids in our digital world. It outlines all you need to know about the short-term and potential long-term consequences of tech use. Dr. Kang simplifies cutting edge neuroscience to reveal a new understanding around how we metabolize experiences with technology that will lay the foundation for lasting success. On top of that, she offers practical advice for tackling specific concerns in the classroom or at home, whether it's possible tech addiction, anxiety, cyberbullying, or loneliness. With her 6-week 6-step plan for rebalancing your family's tech diet, Dr. Kang will help your child build healthy habits and make smart choices that will maximize the benefits of tech and minimize its risks. Use The Tech Solution to help your child avoid the pitfalls of today's digital world and to offer them guidance that will boost their brains and bodies, create meaningful connections, explore creative pursuits, and foster a sense of contribution and empowerment for many years to come.

Background Children's and adolescents' health state suffers from the double burden of metabolic and mental health disorders, representing a critical public health matter. As never before, today's children are growing up in a saturated digital media (DM) environment. Despite the immense opportunities for learning and self-development, little is known about the role of DM exposure on children's health. Aim This doctoral dissertation aims to provide evidence on the potential association of DM exposure with health outcomes, including metabolic syndrome and cognitive functioning, as well as health behaviours, namely dietary intake, eating habits, and sensory taste preferences in children and adolescents. Methods The present cumulative thesis is constituted of four papers: one systematic literature review (SLR, paper 1) and three original investigations (papers 2, 3, and 4). In paper 1, a total of 35 studies conducted worldwide were reviewed, critically appraised, and synthesized. These studies examined the association of social media (SM) exposure with the dietary intake, breakfast skipping, and nutrition literacy of healthy children and adolescents. The SLR was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The empirical research conducted in papers 2 to 4 used data provided by children aged 2-18 years of IDEFICS/I.Family cohort. The cohort was carried out in three waves across nine European countries. The first examination wave (i.e., baseline, W1) was conducted during 2007-2008, and 16,229 children participated. The second examination wave (i.e., first follow-up, W2) was conducted during 2009-2010 and included 13,596 children. The third examination wave (i.e., second follow-up, W3) was conducted during 2013-2014 and included 9,617 children and adolescents. The overarching aim of the cohort was to identify dietary- and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and adolescents, considering sensitive developmental periods, and to develop a community-based intervention on childhood obesity. Across paper 2 to paper 4, the analysis group varied from 3,261 to 10,359 participants after respective inclusion/exclusion criteria were met. DM exposure (hours/day) was self-reported, including: i) television viewing (TV), ii) computer/game console (PC), iii) smartphone, and iv) internet exposure. The related behaviour of media multitasking, defined as the simultaneous use of several media, was also reported. In paper 2, sensory taste preferences for sweet, fatty, salty, and bitter taste were evaluated via a Food and Beverage Preference Questionnaire. In paper 3, measures of cognitive functioning, namely cognitive inflexibility and decision-making ability were assessed via computerized tests, while emotion-driven impulsiveness was self-reported. In paper 4, metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components: abdominal obesity (via waist circumference), blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), insulin resistance (homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) or fasting glucose), and dyslipidaemia (HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides), were objectively measured. Age and sex-specific z-scores and monitoring levels (≥90th percentile, as defined by Ahrens et al. 2014) were considered for each metabolic outcome. The statistical approach used to investigate the associations of interest varied depending on the research questions. Logistic regression models were used to examine associations between exposures and dichotomized outcomes (papers 2 and 3). Latent class analyses were performed to identify underlying patterns of DM exposure (paper 3), based on a combination of using the individual media (in categories). In paper 4, to examine the longitudinal association of DM exposure with MetS and its components, a two-step trajectory approach was used: first, the age-dependent trajectories of DM exposure were calculated using linear mixed models; second, to estimate the association between childhood DM trajectory and MetS at follow-up, generalized linear mixed models were used. Across papers, analyses were stratified by sex, age, country of residence, parental educational status, and family structure, to characterize children and adolescents that are most vulnerable to the potential negative impact of DM exposure. Results The SLR revealed a dose-dependent relationship between SM exposure and daily intake of sugar and caffeine and the consumption frequency of sugar-sweetened beverages in both children and adolescents. SM exposure was also associated with low frequency intake of fruits and vegetables and less frequent breakfast consumption. No association between SM exposure and nutrition literacy was observed. SM exposure, measured either as WhatsApp use, watching YouTube videos, or exposure to SM influencer's advertising on Instagram, led to an increased intake of unhealthy food and beverages at ad-libitum and after two years. A neuro-physiological mechanism was identified: exposure to digital food images increased the neural activation of brain areas related to reward and attention. Peers' presence on SM but not of SM influencers, showed a potential to improve adolescents' vegetable intake. In IDEFICS/I.Family children exposure to DM increased over age, from 2.4 h/day at the age of two years to 5.5 h/day at the age of 16 years. This increase was steeper among boys compared to girls. Country differences were also observed, where Estonian, Cypriot, and Swedish children had the highest DM increase, while Spanish children showed the lowest DM increase. The observational research conducted in paper 2 showed that prolonged DM exposure (>2 h/day) was associated with a high preference score for sweet, fatty, and salty-tasting foods among adolescents, especially females. An inverse association between prolonged DM exposure and bitter taste preference was observed among males. In paper 3, it was observed that one additional hour of exposure to smartphones and the internet, and higher media multitasking was positively associated with children's emotion-driven impulsiveness and cognitive inflexibility and negatively associated with decision-making ability. Compared to participants with low exposure to all media, participants with “high smartphone and internet, in combination with medium TV and low PC exposure”, showed higher scores for emotion-driven impulsiveness and cognitive inflexibility and a lower score for decision-making ability. In paper 4, it was found that increasing DM exposure during childhood was positively associated with the z-scores of MetS, waist-circumference, HOMA-IR, HDL-c-1, and triglycerides after two or six years. The stratified analyses revealed that associations were independent of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Children with an above-average DM increase over age (DM slope> 0 h/day/year) showed a 22% higher risk for later incident MetS. This risk was higher among boys compared to girls (41% and 10%, respectively). Conclusion The findings of this thesis suggest that DM exposure is associated with unfavorable dietary intake and poor eating behaviors. A neuro-physiological mechanism and a clear impact of peers and SM influencers on the SM environment explain these findings. The results also showed that DM exposure is positively associated with a preference for sweet, fatty, and salty-tasting foods and negatively associated with a preference for bitter-tasting foods. This suggests that DM exposure may lead to obesity by favoring the taste preference of unhealthy foods over healthy ones. Moreover, exposure to modern DM was positively associated with children's emotion-driven impulsiveness and cognitive inflexibility and inversely associated with decision-making ability. This sheds light on a new potential mechanism by which DM exposure leads to poor mental health in children and adolescents. Finally, the findings support the hypothesis that increasing DM exposure during childhood may be an independent risk factor for metabolic syndrome later in life, with boys being at higher risk. These long-term associations need to be confirmed in other populations of children and adolescents, considering not only duration but also patterns of DM exposure, as well as children with an unfavorable background regarding socio-economic status, learning difficulties, or predisposing mental disorders. Further interdisciplinary, longitudinal studies may consider the interplay between health determinants in the physical and digital environment to identify potential intervening factors to promote children's health in a hybrid world. Future health interventions may consider a precautionary approach and use the identified mechanisms to increase children's and adolescents' resilience against the potential adverse health effects of the digital environment at an early stage of their development.

Has Technology Taken Over Your Home? In this digital age, children spend more time interacting with screens and less time playing outside, reading a book, or interacting with family. Though technology has its benefits, it also has its harms. In Screen Kids Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane will empower you with the tools you need to make positive changes. Through stories, science, and wisdom, you’ll discover how to take back your home from an overdependence on screens. Plus, you’ll learn to teach the five A+ skills that every child needs to master: affection, appreciation, anger management, apology, and attention. Learn how to: Protect and nurture your child’s growing brain Establish simple boundaries that make a huge difference Recognize the warning signs of gaming too much Raise a child who won’t gauge success through social media Teach your child to be safe online This newly revised edition features the latest research and interactive assessments, so you can best confront the issues technology create in your home. Now is the time to equip your child with a healthy relationship with screens and an even healthier relationship with others.

How children engage with technology at each stage of development, from toddler to twentysomething, and how they can best be supported. What happens to the little ones, the tweens, and the teenagers, when technology—ubiquitous in the world they inhabit—becomes a critical part of their lives? This timely book Technology's Child brings much-needed clarity to what we know about technology’s role in child development. Better yet, it provides guidance on how to use what we know to help children of all ages make the most of their digital experiences. From toddlers who are exploring their immediate environment to twentysomethings who are exploring their place in society, technology inevitably and profoundly affects their development. Drawing on her expertise in developmental science and design research, Katie Davis describes what happens when child development and technology design interact, and how this interaction is complicated by children’s individual characteristics and social and cultural contexts. Critically, she explains how a self-directed experience of technology—one initiated, sustained, and ended voluntarily—supports healthy child development, especially when it takes place within the context of community support. Children’s experiences with technology—their “screen time” and digital social relationships—have become an inescapable aspect of growing up. This book, for the first time, identifies the qualitative distinctions between different ages and stages of this engagement, and offers invaluable guidance for parents and teachers navigating the digital landscape, and for technology designers charting the way.

The definitive book on helping kids navigate growing up in a world where nearly every moment of their lives can be shared and compared NATIONAL BESTSELLER With social media and constant connection, the boundaries of privacy are stretched thin. Growing Up in Public shows parents how to help tweens and teens navigate boundaries, identity, privacy, and reputation in their digital world. We can track our kids’ every move with apps, see their grades within minutes of being posted, and fixate on their digital footprint, anxious that a misstep could cause them to be “canceled” or even jeopardize their admission to college. And all of this adds pressure on kids who are coming of age immersed in social media platforms that emphasize “personal brand,” “likes,” and “gotcha” moments. How can they figure out who they really are with zero privacy and constant judgment? Devorah Heitner shows us that by focusing on character, not the threat of getting caught or exposed, we can support our kids to be authentically themselves. Drawing on her extensive work with parents and schools as well as hundreds of interviews with kids, parents, educators, clinicians, and scholars, Heitner offers strategies for parenting our kids in an always-connected world. With relatable stories and research-backed advice, Growing Up in Public empowers parents to cut through the overwhelm to connect with their kids, recognize how to support them, and help them figure out who they are when everyone is watching.