Bhopal: Is your child depressed, excessive internet use could be the reason

Bhopal: The recent fall in the rates of mobile data in view of the cutthroat competition between the telecom companies have brought huge relief to its subscribers and internet users, but it has a flip side too. As the internet rates have come down, the time spent by people, specially children and teenagers, before the computers and on mobiles has gone up manifold, affecting their health adversely

Children are the worst sufferers as they are spending more and more time on social networking sites and are literally living in virtual world, which is affecting them physically and psychologically. Number of patients visiting ophthalmologist and also psychiatrists has seen a sharp rise in the recent past. These medical practitioners are dealing with young patients suffering from depression, anxiety and stress.

Dr Manish Baurasi, a neuron-psychiatrist says that nowadays when parents approach him with their child who is under depression and when I counsel them alone I find that the child is carrying guilt. Children in most of the cases have been found victims of excessive use of internet. It can have social, academic, physical and psychological effects on them, he said while citing an example of a child who had suffered depression.

Young children are exposed to whole lot of unwarranted and undesired information, pornography, which is a click away, is one of the reasons behind sending a child into depression, he added. Besides, parents of children as young as six and seven years are visiting eye specialist. This is a time of digital gaming and children are drawn toward it. Dharmendra, a resident of Nehru Nagar describes how his 7-year-old daughter got addicted to mobile gaming to an extent that she used to deny taking even meal. Initially, I took it lightly and never mind giving her the mobile, but later I realized the gravity. I have stopped giving her mobile phone. She would consume my whole 1 GB data while playing games on mobile, he added.

Dr Prerna, an ophthalmologist says that the mobile, in general, is harmful to the eyes of children and its continuous use results in increasing their lens power number.