Coming less than a week before Gov. Kathy Hochul detailed a plan to ban smartphone use in schools statewide from “bell to bell,” parents gathered in the auditorium of the Pierson Middle and High School on Jan. 15 heard from an expert on just how detrimental screen time can be to younger children.
Nicholas Kardaras, a licensed clinical social worker, was at the school at the invitation of the local chapter of Wait Until 8th, a nationwide campaign in which parents pledge to wait until their children are at least 13 before giving them smartphones.
The most dangerous time to introduce a screen to a child is between the ages of 1 and 5, he said, as screentime at that age can seriously impede brain development and attention spans. “The longer we delay, the better shot you give a child a chance to develop their minds, develop their social skills and develop their cognitive development so they can have a better shot at navigating this complex world.”
Dr. Kardaras has written about his research into the effects of screen time on the brain in the book “Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids — And How to Break the Trance.”
“So right now we’re experiencing the worst mental health crisis in the history of mental health or psychiatric measures,” Dr. Kardaras said, “and that was before Covid, by the way. It’s only gotten worse.”
In 2019, he said, there were 42,000 suicides, 70,000 fatal overdoses, and “record rates of depression, anxiety, and A.D.H.D.” During Covid these numbers got worse as well.
While this crisis cannot wholly be attributed to social media and increased screen time, the proliferation of social media and much earlier introduction of screens and smart devices to children have a direct impact on brain development, he said, leading to what he described as an “A.D.H.D. profile.”
He described how smartphone use can lead to enough dopamine being secreted in the brain to be akin to a severe drug addiction. This coupled with aggressive algorithms that can be manipulated by bad actors to radicalize young, still developing minds, should give people cause for concern, he said.
Dr. Kardaras experienced this firsthand when he was asked to work with a 17-year-old in Florida who was watching YouTube 18 to 20 hours a day. He came upon a short video about the Holocaust, “and because of that,” Dr. Kardaras said, “the algorithm started sending him Holocaust-denial videos.” After watching a video about Syria and its former leader Bashar al-Assad, he started seeing ISIS recruitment videos. In three to six months he had become fully radicalized. He killed a 13-year-old boy at a sleepover and tried to kill three other people in the house.
When Dr. Kardaras began working with him, he had already been incarcerated for about 10 months and had been completely isolated from technology. “So he basically went back to the kid used to be,” Dr. Kardaras said, “and so he was extremely remorseful, really sensitive.”
While this was a worst-case scenario, it points to the dangers of screen addiction. The best thing parents can do, Dr. Kardaras said, is to delay the introduction of screens and social media.
Governor Hochul’s plan to keep children off unsanctioned internet-enabled devices during school hours will be introduced in her budget package. It calls for investing $13.5 million to help with implementation in schools across the state. On the South Fork, some, including Pierson and East Hampton High Schools, already have at least partial bans on cellphone use during school hours.
No matter what happens, the local chapter of Wait Until 8th will continue to make the case for delaying the introduction of smartphones. “We want to be having these events where everyone knows that everyone is screen-free and kids can just come and play,” Laney Crowell, a founder of the chapter, said after the presentation. The group has already planned a free bowling night at the Clubhouse, an online event focused on artificial intelligence, and another in-person talk with an employee at GeekHampton.