The Role of the Family in Reducing the Negative Effects of Children’s Use of Smartphones

(دراسة ميدانية على عينة من أرباب الأسر بمنطقة ماجر بمدينة زليتن)

Abstract

This study aims to shed light on the role of the family in reducing the negative effects of smartphones on children and to explore their social, behavioral, and health impacts. It also seeks to identify the applications that attract children’s attention on smartphones. The study adopted the descriptive-analytical method, and the sample consisted of 100 parents from Majer area, selected through purposive sampling. The study tool was a questionnaire. The study reached several findings. It showed that 64% of the sample were aged 33 years and above, and that most participants had a university-level education or higher, representing 61.0% of the sample. The findings also indicated that parents are making serious efforts to reduce the impact of smartphones on their children by adopting various strategies. The study concluded that smartphones have many social, behavioral, and health effects on children from the parents’ perspective in Majer area. Moreover, it revealed that there are many applications and programs that attract children to smartphones, the most prominent being entertainment games, followed by watching entertaining cartoon movies on YouTube Kids, and then drawing and coloring applications.