The coronavirus pandemic has significantly disrupted normal daily activities globally. With the epidemic, the world has started to spend more time at home as a precaution. The more time people spend at home, the more they use the internet. With the coronavirus epidemic, the whole world has started to do all the activities of daily life, such as business, education, shopping, communication, from home and in the digital environment. People stuck at home (schools, workplaces, parks, beaches, shopping malls, cultural venues closed) during the coronavirus epidemic are spending more of their lives online. All schools, some of the parents’ work has been moved to our rooms, our halls. From school lectures to doctor’s appointments, so many areas of our daily lives have gone online. Using our mobile phones and the internet has become a part of daily life during the pandemic. Now we can say that “the world is living in the house” or “the world is stuck in the house” for this new situation.
It has been reported that during the stay-at-home obligations and quarantines, there was a 50-75% increase in internet use and a 75% increase in online gaming activity, while the duration of social media use was 87% higher than the normal time. It has been stated that excessive use of technological devices such as television, computers, tablets and smartphones can cause addiction and various health problems. The World Health Organization and mental health experts have recommended that a balanced screen use and playing time is important in maintaining the mental health of children and youth.
Problematic internet use in children and youth during the epidemic
The Internet provides great benefits to children, especially in information and education. Children and young people learn very quickly and extensively about the topics they are curious about, interests and current issues on the Internet. At the same time, they can make friends from almost all over the world through social media. The internet environment creates a risky environment for problematic use and addiction, due to its many qualities such as being easily accessible, universal, containing intense stimuli, hiding personal information, and establishing social communication easily without burdening responsibility.
Problematic internet use affects young people’s ability to establish social relationships; Children and young people progress towards developing and changing their own identities, and becoming stronger individuals spiritually, within the framework of the depth of relationships they have established at every age period. They model their friends, parents, and other adults, adopting or rejecting their values. Young people’s newly established, coherent love relationships can also heal past painful experiences. Thus, they can both reconsider the traumas in their past lives, solve them, evaluate them more realistically, endure their pain and cope with them. This also increases their ability to cope with anxiety and problem-solving skills now and in the future. However, children and young people who spend time in front of the internet and have less active social experiences-relationships in life will have more problems in their current and future social relationships. Studies show that those who spend a lot of time in front of the screen significantly reduce the time of face-to-face contact with their family and friends. Children and young people who spend most of their time in front of the screen will not be able to spare time for social relations outside. They may experience self-confidence problems in terms of establishing relationships with their peers in the outside world. On the contrary, young people with self-confidence problems can spend more time in front of the screen. Long-term and uncontrolled use of screen use will negatively affect the problem-solving and coping skills of children and young people. The number of researchers who believe that using the Internet “destroys the skills, talents and patience necessary to establish social relationships in a world where material characteristics come to the fore” is increasing day by day.
It is clear that problematic internet use will increase, especially in this period when distance education is carried out and curfew is prohibited for young people. Screen time may seem like a solution for keeping kids and teens busy. However, when used for a long time, it can cause mental, behavioral, physical and academic problems as well as the social relationship problems mentioned above.
They may have problems in their lessons, especially because they spend a lot of time in front of the screen. Young people with internet addiction will not want to spend time outside of the internet environment and will not want to go to school more and more. Also, sleeping late or not sleeping because of the time spent on the internet will affect their daily life and performance the next day. Long-term screen exposure disrupts attention, negatively affects focusing on the same thing for a long time. It prevents the formation of larger mental images, vocabulary, and difficulties in remembering. All these negatively affect their academic performance.
Leaning forward while looking at the screen, prolonged screen use can cause spinal disorders and pain, dryness and irritation in the eyes, visual impairment, numbness or pain in the arms and fingers, and headaches. Due to spending a long time in front of the screen, their physical activities will decrease a lot, their eating patterns will change, and this causes the risk of obesity.
They may form harmful friendships due to new acquaintances in the social environment. Family relationships can be adversely affected as he spends most of his time online. As the time spent on the Internet increases, he may be deprived of social, sporting and artistic activities that he can do in this process. It is known that children who use the internet widely and spend their time with computer games have a significant decline in their social development and low self-confidence.
It has been stated that the level of social anxiety and aggression behaviors are high in young people who use problematic internet. It has been shown that long-term use of the Internet, violent videos and games increase the child’s tendency to violence. It has been stated that the type of game played, the frequency and duration of playing games are effective in the formation of violence tendency caused by internet use in children and young people. In addition to the increase in the tendency to violence of young people using the Internet, the risk of being exposed to intentional and aggressive attitudes, which is defined as “cyberbullying”, is also high. In cyberbullying, young people can often be harassed or threatened by using their personal information in electronic media.
Sometimes, problematic internet use may occur due to mental disorders, or problematic internet use may be accompanied by these disorders. Mental disorders associated with internet use are Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Anxiety Disorders and Depressive Disorder. Again, during problematic internet use, mental problems such as stagnation, anger, panic attacks, mood changes and depression may occur. It is stated that the use of the Internet is associated with the feeling of loneliness, and the socialization that cannot be obtained from the outside world is desired to be experienced in the virtual environment. Conversely, problematic internet use also reduces the need and effort to establish real social relationships, often resulting in worsening mental illness and dysfunction. It was also found that people with high internet use have weaker perceptions of social support. In other words, on the one hand, they feel alone and on the other hand, they have difficulty in noticing the attention and support offered to them.
It is important that parents have information about problematic internet use or internet addiction. It seems more realistic and important that parents consider internet use not only as a problem that kills their children’s time, but also as a problem that impairs their mental and physical health, academic success, social relations, and negatively affects their coping skills in every subject.
What is problematic internet use or internet addiction?
Different concepts such as problematic (problematic) internet use, pathological internet use, internet addiction, excessive internet use are used to express the excessive use of the internet and the problems caused by this excessive use. Below are the accepted symptoms for internet addiction.
- Excessive mental preoccupation with internet use
- Using more and more to enjoy
- Staying online longer than planned
- Unsuccessful attempts to quit
- Don’t lie about expiration date
- Feeling restless, depressed, or angry in case of reduction-to-complete cessation
- Having problems with school, work, and peers, jeopardizing an educational or career opportunity
Internet addiction can occur at any age. However, the biggest risk group is young people between the ages of 12-18. Considering that there is a large young population in our country, it becomes an important problem. It can be seen in both sexes, but it is 2-3 times more common in boys than girls.
During attempts to reduce internet use, excessive mental preoccupation, anger, tension and restlessness are experienced regarding the desire to use the internet, and dementia and/or depressive symptoms may occur when offline. Parents and teens should know that they will experience these symptoms during attempts to reduce their internet use and that the symptoms will decrease as they stay away from the internet.
The way to deal with problematic internet use
Children/teenagers should use computer/internet. It is necessary to catch up with this era. Especially when there is a curfew during the epidemic, it would not be realistic to completely remove children from the internet. However, parents should be vigilant in children whose internet usage time increases and their academic and social activities are affected during their stay at home. Teenagers with problematic internet use may be accommodating to parents’ efforts to restrict internet use, or they may respond in a hard-to-reject way. Parents should firmly and consistently follow the recommendations given below.
Parents who protect their children from outside dangers from a young age should know that the approach is similar in internet use. It is essential to ensure a safe use with supervision in internet use for children and young people. The purpose of their children’s use of the Internet should be supervised. Ideal forms of use are: acquiring information, school-related activities, communication. What is meant by communication; it should be to communicate with people whom he knows from real life, whose purpose is not to “chat”. Non-violent games can be allowed to be played with a time limit
It is recommended that children and young people use computers not exceeding 1-2 hours per day.
The question of what is the appropriate time to use the Internet for children and teenagers is an important and frequently asked question. It should not be allowed to be used before homework, during class breaks, as a substitute for social or family activities. Again, the internet should not be used at meal times, during or before sleep. Apart from these, the time of internet use should be planned during the day, when there is nothing to do, and use should be allowed by determining the start and end time.
Parents should not think that their duties are over when they provide computer and internet access to their children, and they should learn to use the internet and computer at least at a level to be able to “inspect” in order to protect them from the dangers that occur on the internet.
●Parents, computer games; they should not see their children as a tool to distract them without disturbing them.
●The time spent on the Internet should be determined as starting and ending times in a way that children and young people will be in, and it should be ensured that they comply with these times. Again, when these limits are complied with or not, the actions to be taken (reward-punishment) should be determined together with the children and young people.
●Children and young people can follow the internet access and exit times. This follow-up chart should be filled by the children, parents should check it.
●Mothers and fathers should plan together to spend time with their children, and be a guide and model for activities where they can spend time on their own.
●It should be taught and supervised that the child should not give photos, real names, addresses and family members’ information in internet use (risk of abuse, peer abuse and bullying)
●They should inform their children about the possibility of sexual abuse on the internet and tell them about the ways to protect themselves.
●They should be taught to report unpleasant images, shares and conversations they may encounter on the Internet, and trust should be established.
●Parents should have information about problematic internet use, internet addiction and mental illnesses that are risky for excessive internet use.
● It is important that parents exhibit behaviors that can be the right model. Children are always watching, seeing and imitating their parents. Parents should turn off the screen themselves, thus creating opportunities for family members to spend time with each other, form deep relationships and bond.
●Parents should be models for activities at home. (They can play group games with children at home. They can plan reading hours for the family or read books on different topics and genres). The main thing is to find things that bring a sense of peace to the person and guide them to use them instead of things that will add more stress and more anxiety.
We are in a “big experiment” with a lot of unknowns, and parents will determine whether this experiment will turn into an adventure, learning new things for each step, for each difficulty, and as practitioners.
