It's a tricky ground, but if we dig deeper into the technical side of things, so what's happening in the brains of these little kids, of these screen-engrossed kids, no, we can actually find that their brains have their circuitry similar to what occurs in the brains of adults addicted to substances like nicotine, alcohol, and cocaine.
Are there days you feel you've had it with the sleepless nights, the temper tantrums, the constant fatigue of trying to keep up with an active baby? Does it feel like you're always working so hard as a parent, trying to do everything for your kids and family, and yet it never feels enough? We get it. You love your child more than anything, and yet parenting is also exhausting and challenging.
Especially when you're bombarded with criticism and pressure to be the perfect parent. Which, spoiler alert, does not exist. That's why we created Discerning Parenting, the podcast that helps you cut through the noise and focus on what truly matters in your parenting journey. This podcast is jam-packed with valuable insights and practical tips specifically tailored for parents of kids aged 5 and below.
So join us and discover how you can use the combined power of science, knowing your child, and your own intuition in making the best parenting decisions for you and your family.
Hello, and welcome to the Discerning Parenting podcast, where we use science to help parents make parenting decisions with less stress guilt, and pleasure. So. Thank you so much.
Today, we have with us Dr. Paul Filomeno, or Dr. Paulfi for short. He's a board-certified pediatrician with a degree in Master's Public Health, and he is also training in addiction medicine. So, he has knowledge skills, and experience from both pediatrics and addiction medicine. Dr. Paulfi is passionate about pediatric and behavioral addictions, especially screen and gaming addiction in children.
So thank you, Dr. Paul, for joining us here today. I know that you have such a busy schedule. And thank you also for recognizing that this is really a huge need today and a huge concern for parents. screen and gaming addiction. Dr. Paulfi has shared his experience in several symposia. Most recently, with the Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health of Thailand.
Aside from his fellowship training, Dr. Paul spends most of his time with his family and he is a hands-on dad to his 18-month-old daughter, Lorene. So it's so nice again to have a dad here in the show. Usually, we have moms and we have both a dad and a pediatrician and a specialist in addiction medicine.
So who better to talk to us about screen time addiction than Dr. Paul today. So Dr. Paul, can you tell us a bit about yourself also? Tell me more about the specialty of addiction medicine, like who are the kids that you help how you came to specialize in this, and why you decided to specialize in addiction medicine.
well, ma'am, it's an honor, you know, to be here. And first and foremost, thank you for your platform where I can actually introduce It's one of the newest specializations we have in the Department of Psychiatry. So we now call our office the Division of Addiction and Recovery Medicine. Just to be more encompassing, and I believe it paints a better picture, of what we do on the ground.
So, we are currently a unit in PGH, solely dedicated to the management of pediatric and adult patients with substance and behavioral addictive disorders. So, what we offer is a comprehensive... And what I love... Yeah, what I love is it's a multidisciplinary unit like you have pediatricians, you have psychiatrists, you have family practitioners.
Yeah. So, that's the advantage of our unit. No, it's a transdisciplinary. It's open, not only to psychiatrists. And I believe that is an advantage where we can actually look at the patient through different lenses as well. So the management is quite comprehensive and, what we do in our clinic is actually when we look at a patient with a suspicion of a, for example, drug abuse or an addictive process, for example, gambling or pornography, for example, We look at them but first we come into their treatment early on, as early as their admission in the emergency room.
And then, for example, once the primary service detects a positive drug result or upon clinical history, they notice an addictive process in the patient. What we do is we follow them up. and make sure that we employ a recovery oriented management plan for this patient, making sure that the addictions of the patient will also be addressed aside from the primary disease or the primary condition of the patient and that permission and relapse prevention is attained.
Yeah, you have a holistic view and it's not just about treating what is the problem right now, but about how to really help the patient improve their lives and recover. Yes, ma'am. So going back to your question on how I got, I got into this is that personally, I consider myself one of the curious doctors who courageously embraced this journey.
So it was in 2021 and I was heavily engaged in my master's and participating in clinical research back then. And I stumbled upon an announcement in our pediatric alumni chat group. that a certain training in addiction medicine has opened under the Department of Psychiatry. What caught my interest was that it opened its doors to nonpsychiatrists, meaning the other clinical divisions such as IM, pediatrics, and family medicine.
It immediately caught my attention and I remember thinking that, could it be an exciting twist, in my career back then. So going back to 2021, we know that it was a crazy year with the pandemic and all, and we were witnessing a surge in mental health issues, including addictions, in our patients.
No. Yeah. So. As a pediatrician, I was genuinely curious about how to handle these problems, so I took a leap of faith, perhaps, and I prayed about it and applied for training. So, but venturing to this type of training, required me to immerse myself into the language of psychiatry and mental health and also diving into psychopharmacology and exploring various behavioral interventions as well, not only for pediatrics, but also for adult patients.
So I, I had to do a lot of research and readings as well. And as one of the first few trainees in the field, there's a lot of uncertainty. Knowing that addiction medicine is still on a birthing process in our country and one of the least explored sciences, but so far it's just, it has been one of the most rewarding career moves that I made.
You're a pioneer, Dr. Paul. Yes, I believe so. I imagine this is really a growing field and imagine with how easy it is to get screen time nowadays. I expect that your services are going to be so much more needed. This is really a very controversial topic right now, screen time addiction. And, I've heard a lot of parents who feel that their kids are addicted to screens.
While sometimes, and even it's experts who will say that, Oh, there's no such thing as screen time addiction. So I guess let's, let's start by asking the question. Is there such a thing as screen time addiction? Okay. So, you know the word addiction can pretty be loaded these days though. When, when you hear that, especially when it comes to children, it's a bit controversial to label young kids as, addicted or addicts just because they spend a lot of time on screens, especially now with tablets and computers becoming part of the educational toolkit that they need in school.
It's a tricky ground, but if we dig deeper into the technical side of things, so what's happening in the brains of these little kids of this screen and gross kids, no, we can actually find that their brains have their circuitry similar to what occurs in the brains of adults addicted to substances like nicotine, alcohol, and cocaine.
So picture it this way. It's not about pointing fingers or slapping labels. No, it's about understanding the complex dance that's happening in the brain when kids spend a lot of time when And the challenge now is we need to unravel this puzzle to help them navigate in the digital world safely. And now let me answer, that million-dollar question,
it's, is there a thing such as a screen time addiction? Well, it's not as simple as a yes or no. Personally, I'd want to say there's something going on when the brains of these kids are glued to their screens for hours and end. But here's what I where it gets interesting. I recently got insights from the experts from Boston Children's when I attended their workshop on digital media and screen time use.
So they realized that there's no clear, road map, or I guess clear delineation between the diagnosis of different, interactive media use, for example, for pornography, for video games, for social media, and so they, they created this umbrella broad term called PIMU or PIMU, which means Problematic Interactive Media Use.
So that term encompasses now the four main ways kids dive into digital devices or their gadgets. So the four arms of this are made mainly video gaming, social media, and information binging. So these are the kids who Caught up into the rabbit hole of investigating on a certain subject, spending a long time on YouTube videos, or even joining online forums just to navigate, just to investigate on a certain issue, making them hooked.
And then even with the tricky subject of pornography, so that completes the four. So, Paimu refers to these disorders whether the use of the devices is either online or offline. And because, why does it matter? Because blaming a particular device or activity has not been found to be the culprit.
The real issue now is how these, Platforms are very interactive. So the issue that they found with media is the interactivity, not the screen in itself, but how the platform engages the child. That is where they found the core of the problem when they said the interactive nature of these devices they found that some children, Find it difficult to detach from the screen because, they lose contact with number one with time, with their surroundings, even with the parents or their guardians and that what keeps them hooked is that the interactive nature of the screen keeps them wanting for more and that they spend a lot of time, even dedicate majority of their days with their gadget.
That is so interesting, Dr. Paul. So I love how you brought in all the nuances to this question because sometimes what we see on social media, is clear-cut black and white. Yes, there's internet addiction. No, there's no internet addiction. And then there's this whole debate. But the thing is, there are so many nuances and I love how you're really using objective data, like what we see going on in the brains of these kids.
And then introducing the idea of problematic internet media use. And if I may point out also, I know this can come as a surprise to some people because a lot of people think that, Oh, it's problematic only if it's passive. If you're watching television, but they think because the kids interact and the kids participate, then it should be less problematic, but it's actually the reverse.
And I'm glad how, You pointed out that based on the data we have, it's the fact that it's interactive that actually makes it more addicting and more immersive and can result in more problems. So that's very, very interesting. And thank you for sharing that with us. What are the signs of possible problematic internet media use?
This is a question we get also a lot from parents. They would describe how they may have struggled to get their kids off their screens. Or their kids may spend so and so amount of hours a day using a gadget and they're asking, is this already a problem? Is this normal? I mean gadgets are everywhere around us.
Everybody's using it. So is it really a problem?
So what are the signs of possible problematic internet media use? So, so-called red flags or warning signs. We can watch out for experience. It's, it's really, I'm really excited to share this. So, going back to my previous statement, so on what, what is happening to kids, like toddlers as young as toddlers or preschoolers who get caught up in this screen time cycle?
We could say that it's quite a rollercoaster, circuitry in their brain, they're, they're so engrossed in the screen that they literally lose track of everything else around them. So as I mentioned, their surroundings, the world, their parents, and even time. So that is on a, on a very technical, term one of the major things that they found out in patients with tick-tock addiction as well is that there, there's a lot of time distortion that's happening.
That's why , they really get engrossed into that platform for hours and hours. And that, it seems that children are zapped into a different zone. When they're into their screens and what we are witnessing in kids and teens and even us in adults. Now we are in intense fixations.
And these are really intense. It's most It's almost like they've abandoned their interests in important developmental activities, like reading and writing. And that some theories have said that the screen has deprived its children their developmental tasks to be creative. Or even building social skills.
Like at the time that they're supposed to be having in person interaction, or even movement and play, and all of this is being replaced by screen media use. Yes, so they, the screen replaces that developmental task and that it becomes passive rather than an active event for the child. So, I guess that is one of the major reasons for a lot of cognitive delays in our children nowadays.
And school performance. Takes a hit. No social interaction suffer. And we see, we often see that some children even exhibit intense behaviors. I mean, we're talking about kids throwing epic tantrums and sometimes even trying to harm themselves when they're deprived of their screen or when their gadget is taken away from them.
So in, in extremes, in, in some extreme cases, they forget about basic things like eating on time, getting enough sleep, and personal hygiene. We, we, I've heard about cases from my mentors that they're managing a teen who was diagnosed with a prenatal problem secondary to, forgetting to urinate on time and that that child eventually went on dialysis just because they were so engrossed in the screen.
So now here's the interesting part. If you line up all these findings in the diagnostic criteria for behavior, certain behavioral addictions, for example, in problematic gambling, you start to notice some striking similarities. Now, for example, one of the signs of gambling disorder is when someone keeps needing to bet larger and larger sums of money.
So we which is kind of like what we see now in kids. Starting with simple screen content, they start with bluey, and then eventually craving for more graphic stuff. Now you'll find them eventually wanting more fighting scenes, and then more 3D-like, Animation. So, and also there's this restlessness and irritability when trying to cut down or quit which is pretty much the withdrawal phenomenon in patients with addictions.
Kids can get super cranky and throw fits when you take their gadgets away and possibly a sign of withdrawal in them. Yes. I believe you, you, you encounter this, ma'am. Yes. You mentioned teenagers and maybe older kids. How about young kids? Do you also see this problem in younger kids? Yes, ma'am. So what we see in younger kids is that, their inability to self-regulate, , the immediate coping for children being taken away from that gadget, the counterpart of withdrawal in them is severe.
tantrums, inconsolable crying, and , this is where it gets complicated for a lot of parents because if they struggle, they struggle and eventually give in because that these children in withdrawal to their screens is actually just. Exhibiting sign off with addiction or an addictive process where their brain is actually wanting or craving for that stimulation, for that animation.
And then they want more and more of that, consume more and more. Yeah. So, I think I've heard many parents who really experienced this extreme tantrums and behavior challenges. When discontinuing gadgets, even for young kids we hear kids as young as two years old who are hooked to gadgets for several hours in a day.
And sometimes it can become a vicious cycle because, the more that they use the gadgets, the more that this cycle. Can happen in the brain. And I guess we can talk a bit about this idea of withdrawal. So what happens is in their brains when they're using gadgets, it can cause an increase of certain chemicals in the brain.
Chemicals like dopamine, can elicit feelings of pleasure. So this would be similar to what happens in the brain when somebody gambles or uses an illicit drug. And then... When screen time is stopped, there is a decrease in these chemicals in the brain, but the child actively wants to seek this increase in brain chemicals again.
And they've gotten used to that level of stimulation, that level of chemicals in the brain, and that is what we call withdrawals. During this withdrawal phase, that is when we can see a lot of tantrums, aggression, and a lot of the challenging behaviors that Many parents experience so we've seen it in our practice.
So you also see it in your practice. Yeah, the process behind this problematic screen media use. Is there a way to predict who would get addicted and who would not? Because parents also hear a lot of stories like, Oh, my child started using gadgets from the time he was a baby. That's how he learned the alphabet, that's how he learned to read early, now he's so smart, and he's not addicted, if I tell him to turn it off, he can turn it off anytime.
So parents end up thinking it's safe to let their kids use gadgets because oh so and so uses gadgets a lot and isn't addicted anyway. And then why is it some kids can play games for hours and not get addicted, while there are other parents who struggle to get their kids off their screens? Or is it possible that There are actually more subtle signs of that there are problems already that, that, that can get missed.
And then what do we do? Also with all of these ads popping up on the internet, something like, okay, your child is addicted to screens. So instead of getting them to stop just by this app so that the time they're on the screens, they're using our app and it's okay, and parents feel good, they think, okay, so instead of that my child is getting this app, which is supposed to make him smarter, so.
what are the factors that can lead to problematic interactive media use or quote-unquote internet addiction? I echo also what you've written in your book, that we live in a time when what we see in the screen is designed to get us hooked, you not to antagonize the artists and the influencers and the marketing team.
Their job is to... To make their products sell. Yeah, that is, that is their job. They're not doing it because they're bad. They're doing it because it's what makes sense business wise. Yes, in a business perspective, that is what they want, and that is a positive thing for them. but when we scrutinize deeply what they're doing, from using highly contrasting neon colors, immersive virtual reality experience, and even cool animations, 3D animations, all of these things...
are catching, attention. So the, the goal of that is to zoom in a person and get, get their immediate attention to, to that platform. So even for the common person stapled on their gadget for more legitimate. Reasons like work and vocations. So that includes me and us. So the risk for overuse will always be here.
So what's going on with our children now? So our children hope to their screens is quite somewhat, I guess, a journey. When you see someone becoming addicted to something, it's like, for example, drugs, alcohol, or even behavior such as gambling, pornography, screens, so their brain goes through some interesting changes, and you mentioned that a while ago.
So first, the intense craving, as we mentioned previously. For whatever they're addicted to, you know, it becomes somewhat a nagging itch. So, for children, they can't describe that, you know, they cannot define that mom, I'm craving for screen. The counterpart to that is they are inconsolable.
They want the screen. They would, they would do everything just for their parents to give them the screen. And that the, their brain reward center then now, it's the one responsible for making them feel good. They become hijacked. So even a person who is aware of the negative consequences that they're already hooked to their screens or hooked to their vice, that craving could be so powerful, so overpowering that it's really, it becomes really tough to resist.
so what we've mentioned now is the aspect of craving, moving forward to tolerance. So aside from craving, tolerance is a big factor playing in an addicted mind. So over time, when a patient or an addicted patient, gets that substance, gets that stimulation they need. A higher dose or a higher experience so, so that they can actually get the same highest as us or same euphoria or same joy or same happiness compared to the previous engagement that the, experience or that the, did.
So what this looks like is, for example, a young child who before would be happy with, let's say. Watching some videos of Paw Patrol or Thomas Train now needs more and more exciting videos. Or someone who starts out with an educational video game would later get bored with those educational video games and want more and more exciting video games.
Yes. yeah. So to highlight that. No, ma'am. many forums have posted these are the top 10 non-stimulating screen time things that can let your children are less harmful or non-harmful shows. But what. What is tricky here is that even the most, the most plain video that we can give our Children will eventually escalate.
So their, their need for, stimulation now, for example, if they're watching Bluey or watching, for example, Miss Rachel for this week, they would eventually want. They would eventually want or get bored to that and then eventually be on tantrums if not been if not shown with other forms of media or other YouTube channels now already.
So, that is tricky. No, that's why, the, the victim for children is really delay, delay, delay, no delay as much as you can their exposure to screens. Yeah. So that's one thing that parents do. That's one thing that we can do as parents to help protect our kids, which is to delay as much as possible.
And that would be the rationale behind the. Recommendation to not have screen media below 18 months. And if you head over to discerningparenting. com, we'll have more information about that, including the screen media guidelines, as well as my book that Dr. Paul mentioned, which is the Discerning Parents Guide to Toddler Behavior, which also has a chapter about managing screen time in a way that is realistic, especially for the world today.
Yeah. So Dr. Paul, if a parent notices signs of screen time addiction in their kids or even in themselves or adult family members, like I often hear, moms will say something like, my husband is almost always glued to the Yeah. He doesn't help around in the house anymore because... Every spare minute that he gets he's just glued to a game.
So if they notice signs like these, what can they do? So does nagging work or bribes or threats? Is it simply a matter of willpower or discipline? Or sometimes they just say it's just a matter of setting limits. Is it simply these solutions that we often hear about? Okay, so I would like to answer first the last question about willpower.
And in our field, we define addictions as one of the syndromes of dysregulated motivations. So evidenced by intense cravings and compulsive behaviors as mentioned a while ago, meaning when a person is actively hooked. into an addictive process or cycle. Changes in the brain happen in that, there are physical changes translating into present addictive behavior.
So there, there is actually structural events happening in a child's brain. Yeah, that means structural differences. That means that there are really physical changes in how the brain develops. So this can happen in adults Because of what we call brain plasticity, it can remodel, but all the more so, it happens in young kids, because for kids, this is the time that their brains are still being formed.
So the gadget use actually influences how a brain is built, just like I guess if you're trying to build a house, whatever happens there can influence how that house is built. So it's something like that. Yeah. So I guess, ma'am, we know this, no, as for us, doctors working in the behavioral sciences, we, we know that these are the formative years, most especially in the development of young children or even adolescents.
So their brain, a part of their brain, their prefrontal cortex is still underdeveloped and that these this, this part specifically of the brain is the one in charge of the impulses. regulation of emotion and also focusing attention. And so that Yeah, so this is the part of the brain responsible for quote-unquote behaving.
Yes, behaving or being disciplined. Yes, if you tell your child you need to focus and pay attention, that's the prefrontal cortex. You tell your child, behave, don't do that, don't hit. Instead of hitting, you use your words. All of that is the prefrontal cortex. And that is developing all the way until early adulthood.
Yes. And comparing that, for example, for a 30-year-old now, when, when who can say for this hour, I was going to watch one Netflix episode. Comparing this to a child, a very young child with what we, with the vulnerability that was said a while ago, the addictive process that is formed in them is more severe and more problematic.
And that it is more permanent and it's harder to treat and manage eventually. So not to mention a lot of studies have already been done regarding the negative impacts of these screens. For example,, in some imaging studies or, they've seen already structural changes. In certain areas of the brain.
And also there are also functional changes as well, such as, such as depletions of certain essential neurotransmitters in certain parts of the brain are also, which are also being documented. And in, in one more recent study, changes in EEG waveforms have been documented in children and gross in their screens.
And that is actually a serious matter for us in in behavioral, in addiction, in even in neurology and in pediatric neurology, you know, so that, that concerns, all of us. And as, as you mentioned in the previous question, some parents would. would like to think that their kids are benefiting from their screens, and maybe because they have that biases, because when their children develop English accents from Peppa Pig or American accents from teacher racial, it may sound cool, but they are, they could be missing out vital aspects of their development as you, as you mentioned, social, motor, cognitive, and even so situational awareness even, which is actually important for survival as a human being, you know, so these are subtle signs that may not be really subtle at all that parents are missing out when they look at screen time as something beneficial to their child.
Yeah, it's true. So that means that screen time can affect how the brain is built and it can affect,
so it can also affect how it works. So if that's the case, if it changes the brain, then it could be that the brain is being programmed to crave screen time. So that is the point when it's not just a matter of discipline or willpower anymore. So sometimes you're going to say, okay, I promise tomorrow we're going to stop.
Okay. We're going to have these treats. We're going to have these rewards, but it can be very, very challenging because it's something that the brain is already starting to crave. So if that's the case, and it's not simply a matter of willpower. Is it possible that professional help may already be needed when it's gotten to this point?
So what are the warning signs that they may need professional help already? And if they decide to seek professional help, what can they expect? So what it would be like to work with a specialist like you? So, what approaches would you take if a child is brought to you for possible problematic screen media use or internet addiction?
So, the parent must first understand that the child of today is bound to be digital natives. So meaning their lives will be bound to the digital world. For examples of these are, future children will now order their food via their cell phone. They pay their bills by their cell phone. In contrast to what, what we have used to have grown up, to be much more analog and that, and that they say we.
As parents now are just digital migrants know so in approaching children now with addiction to screen it should be the contextualized developed in their developmental age. No. So for, for, for children. For very, very young children, toddlers, preschools, and school age. We in the addiction field really plead to the parents now to really delay, them issuing screen time as long as they can.
No. So, if you can actually delay issuing a gadget to a child that has really unfiltered access to the internet. Please do so knowing that that is the best advice, I guess, that we can give, but for some others that are needed, for example, that, that that screen time is actually needed for their studies as well.
We have this, family media use planning, wherein the the child must also see that the whole family is participating in this regulation of screen time. So, if we plan for a child to have limited screen time use The child must also see this behavior to their parents, and that is the more challenging thing now, is that children must see this type of modeling as well to their, to their parents, most especially because that is important in them as well as in their emotional regulation, and I guess you've read also about the, the phenomenon of fubbing when when the parents are so engrossed in their screens and that their children develop different emotional and behavioral manifestations such as anxiety and depression just because their parents are are too much engrossed in their screen.
So I guess managing their child also means managing the parent as well. And so that connects me to what we do in our clinic now. And as you've mentioned parents bring, bring their, children to us for a lot of reasons. May it be because failing grades or they already have family conflict.
So, first, what we do in our clinic is we do a, a comprehensive history when they come to us. We, we screen them for co occurrence of possible Other mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and also other behavioral disorders such as ADHD
and that, we'll make sure that the psychiatry team would actually take, also be in charge of that and that It must be attended properly as well alongside with our therapy and their addictive disorders. And so what's important now is when their child comes to us we also employ a family-oriented approach. So , if we also see signs of family dysfunction, we also involve the family health unit. And families specialists. And if children also exhibit signs of, dysregulated sleep, we make sure that sleep specialists should also be involved.
So I guess it's more of like triaging also when a child addicted to the screen comes to us, or children, a child addicted to social media or pornography or video gaming, it's like triaging them as well into receiving the most proper care. or intervention they must receive.
And you know, ma'am addiction is often described as a chronic relapsing brain disorder and sort of like asthma or diabetes. People can go with through that with multiple relapses on their journey to recovery. So it's not like when they go to us, the child immediately becomes okay. So we orient them that it, it will be a journey that we will be taking together and that aside from engage, aside from assessing the patient, we employ now different behavioral maneuvers.
On our end, we engage the child or the parents through motivational enhancement techniques. Then eventually there. is this specific cognitive behavioral therapy that is directed towards screens and internet use that, that is also available that we can use it depends on the, the type of addiction this this child shows or manifests.
So, it's like recovery from addiction or screen time addiction is a bit, it's like climbing a mountain use. You might. You can stumble and slide back a bit, but you can actually keep moving forward with the right tools or the proper support that we will be connecting to the child and the family as well.
Yeah, so it's really a lot of different tools and strategies and an entire team working together with the family to help the child or even the parent or the adult. And it's great that you do take on, I've said this already earlier, it's great that you do have a holistic perspective to this.
And you consider also this very important part in a child's in a child's development. And, that means if there are people listening to this and they're worried that somebody in their family might be addicted. So there is hope. It is. It's a long process and it takes a lot of effort on the part of an entire team of people.
So it takes an entire village, but there is hope. And if you're listening to this and your child is not addicted, you're contemplating how much screen time to allow your child is maybe still a baby. I've had parents of babies who ask something like. Sometimes it's really pressure from other people around them because there's a lot, there seems to be a lot of pressure to introduce screen time.
I mean, and the internet, we always see something like, oh, they're shaming the parent for giving screen time. But the reality is a lot of parents approach me because they are feeling pressured to give their young kids and their babies and toddlers screen media. Because people perceive that it's educational and it's something that they need and parents are worried that well, my child is already two years old and he hasn't watched all the other shows that other kids his age are watching.
So he's going to be behind. So that's what they're afraid of. Or I have a five-year-old, all his other friends are playing games on Roblox, which can be addictive. And can be very stimulating, but they say something like, if I don't let my kid play these games, then he's going to be left out.
And I, and this Dr. Paul, I even hear stories of kids as young as first grade. And then it's the school hotels, then that the kids. You need to have a Facebook account so that they can communicate. So if there's any teacher or any school listening to this and you're considering this, please, please, please do not.
That is not based on the evidence. Please do not require young kids to have their own social media accounts. First of all, it's actually a violation of the terms and conditions. I mean this is something I tell the parents I work with. If you will not allow your child to go to a mall by themselves, Do not allow them their own access to social media because parents think that, Okay, my child is just at home, he's just in the living room scrolling through his phone.
It's not like he's outside by himself in the mall. But it can be just as, you know, if you won't let your kid go out to a mall by themselves, why would you let them lose on the internet on social media with their own social media account by themselves? So whether you're here for prevention or you're here because you've already seen signs of addiction.
So I hope that this, episode has helped you. And if you're here for prevention, then you can see that, you know, we've heard it from Dr. Paul firsthand. He sees these patients himself. And we don't want you to be one of those parents who later on say that I wish I hadn't introduced screens so early.
Personally, I have never heard a parent who wished that they introduced screens earlier, but I do hear all the time that they wish they hadn't introduced screens so early. They wish they had controlled it more. So, Dr. Paul, is there anything else that you would like to share? Yeah, so I would like to end my or my sharing with a quote from Dr. Phinook Kane from Johns Hopkins, regarding the amount of positive stimulation we are receiving in our generation, in that he likened us to be cactus cacti in a rainforest. And like cactus, it's adapted to an arid climate, right? So we are, we are actually drowning ourselves in dopamine in stimulation when, when we, when we refer or when we talk about screens and what we receive in this interactive media.
So means these children or even our brains are not created to absorb that much. So, even from an evolutionary perspective. They said that our brains are not wired to really, to really be hooked to the screen all the time and to be really engrossed in our digital world, and that is actually evidenced by a lot of studies already, and that, cognition, their development is suffering.
And so as a father, as a pediatrician, and an addiction specialist, I would like to engage and encourage all the parents, it will be hard work to regulate screen time use. And for those already. Seeing science, don't be afraid to seek consultation as early as now because prevention in an in an addiction medicine perspective is a lot better than cure because as I mentioned, when addiction already sets in, it becomes permanent, it creates multiple relapses in the brain becomes hooked into a negative cycle, producing a lot of mental health problems in our child.
So I guess it's not worth it. For, for a child to be speaking American English or, having this creativity boost from Minecraft or Roblox, it will not be worth it if, if eventually a lot of their developmental milestones will suffer instead. Yeah, that's true. And there's also this huge rise in mental health issues.
Yes. And the surprising thing is... When people hear about the rise in mental health issues, they do not connect it to the rise in screen time. Even if statistically speaking, you look at the data, it really parallels the rise in screen time. And you know what people blame? They blame something like, Oh, it's because kids aren't being spanked anymore.
So they will blame all of these things. Oh, it's because there's all this positive parenting. So kids are so fragile. The data doesn't support that. What the data supports is that it parallels the rise to screen time. And, you know, I even hear a lot of people saying that, you know, this opposition to screen time, it's just people opposing new technology.
Some even compared it to, oh, before we were writing on scrolls and they invented printing and people were complaining, people would... get lazy, they likened it to the invention of a car before we were taking horses. And then now we have cars before there was no television, then there was television. But qualitatively, there is really something different about the internet and screen media, the pace that it develops, how there's artificial intelligence.
So you know, a lot of the educational apps, like, there was somebody who sent me a link to an educational app. And then they told me, okay, can I want your opinion about this app? And then it promised to be quote unquote expert developed. There was not a single name of an expert. And it looked like it was developed entirely by AI.
Even the videos of people, I could see that the lips and tongue, the movement was not in sync with the text. So it sounds like, it looks like an AI-generated video, AI-generated voice, AI-generated content. And AI is going to make it even easier for people to create more and more of this content. So, you made me think that...
our kids are learning, was that content really created by somebody who knows what your child is learning? Who knows how to teach your child? Or is it just somebody who is AI-generated so that they can get more views and get more money from you? So, you know, we are actually selling out our kids' future when we're looking at this.
And unfortunately, the entire burden of controlling this rests on us as parents. So if you're listening to this and you're a parent. I know it can feel overwhelming. I know it can feel like we are getting swept up in changes that we have no control over because that is exactly what is happening. So the most that we can do here in discerning parenting is our advocacy.
We want to arm you with the facts. So these are facts. These are data. These are research studies. And we're going to link to this in the show notes, the research data will also link to how to contact Dr. Paul if you want more, if you want to find out more, or if you feel that your child may need a consultation with an addiction medicine specialist, so this is the first step to arm ourselves with the data, with the research, and to, I guess, 📍 Shine a light in the midst.
Yes. In the midst of all this misinformation that we have around us. So thank you so much Dr. Paulfi.