6 million children in rural China are left with smartphone addiction

In 2020, little Li Xiaofeng was caught by his teacher while playing on his phone in class, but there was not much punishment for him because his parents both worked far away from Beijing. To solve the situation, Li’s parents bought him a smart watch that could track the child from more than 1,000km away.

But the boy refused to give up. Every month, Li only dares to eat dumplings and bread to save 1,000 yuan, equivalent to 140 USD in pocket money to buy a smartphone.

“I can’t live without my phone. I don’t use my smartphone to call my parents a lot, but mainly to play games and watch videos, thereby killing time. Studying is not fun and I don’t know what to do without my phone,” Li said.

Sixth Tone newspaper reported that little Li was just one of 6 million children in rural China left behind when their parents moved to the city to work far away, leaving the children in the countryside unable to do anything but plug their faces into their smartphones and kill them. time.

In fact, China’s children’s phone addiction is so serious that in 2018 the government banned middle school students and younger from using smartphones in school. In 2021, China continues to limit the age of minors when they can only spend 1 hour playing online games on weekends.

However, these measures are only administrative when it is difficult to control all cases. Even a survey by Wuhan University shows that the situation is gradually becoming more serious as rural children are increasingly addicted to phones instead of normal entertainment activities.

Accordingly, more than 13,000 children in nine central districts of provinces such as Hunan, Hubei and Henan were left behind when their parents went away to work, making them addicted to phones like Li’s case.

The survey also found that more than 40% of these children left behind own a smartphone and nearly 50% use a device from their grandparents. Worse, about 21.3% of parents reported their children’s phone addiction, which can harm their children’s future.

Research by Wuhan University shows that mobile phone addiction not only reduces school performance but also affects children’s health, such as reducing eye sight.

Argumentative

Ms. Fan Yan is a nanny in Shanghai, leaving 3 children in her hometown in Jiangsu province. During the 2020 pandemic, Ms. Fan bought a smartphone for her older child to study online, then suddenly her child’s academic results dropped sharply.

“My husband and I are uneducated people, so we send our children to private schools. But since the phone, my children play all day whenever I call to check,” Ms. Fan lamented.

As a result of this situation, the eldest child failed to graduate. Currently, Ms. Fan’s second child, who is only 13 years old, has just bought a phone to study online, but the situation is still repeating. However, Ms. Fan herself said that even if she could not take her eyes off her smartphone, it would be difficult to manage the children.

Answering Sixth Tone, expert He Ran of an NGO said that the broken connection between parents and children is the main reason for the increase in phone addiction today. When children are not able to communicate and learn with their parents, they will look to self-discovered knowledge channels, typically Tiktok videos.

In fact, over the past 20 years, thousands of Chinese children and teenagers have been labeled “phone addicts” and sent to rehab centers for treatment. However, an expert named Tang of Quande Center in Hunan who specializes in treating this condition says it is a psychological symptom and needs an appropriate approach instead of forced measures.

Sharing the same view, New York University associate professor Li Angran said that children will always find ways to make connections, learn as well as find fun for themselves. No matter how forced they are, they will eventually find their smartphones again if their parents are still working as far away as they are now. Therefore, instead of forcing, it should be guided on how to use it for the right purpose.

“ Information technology is an open portal to the Internet world and parents should train their children to sift through useful information. Many children in big cities nowadays are not only playing games and watching videos, but also being exposed to programming ,” said Associate Professor Li.

There’s nothing wrong with smartphones, and China’s current tech economy is heavily dependent on these mobile phones, Li said. Therefore, instead of banning or leaving children to misuse their phones, schools and families need to take measures to teach children how to use phones properly.

However, an old problem has arisen again that parents working away from home do not have time to manage their children, and schools still follow the old-fashioned, coercive and disciplined tradition of education.

*Source: Sixth Tone