A neuroscientist spoke about the dangers of using gadgets for children under 10 years old

The human brain is formed in the first eight to ten years of life. This process is actively influenced by the information it receives, so at this age, the child should be protected from the virtual environment. Philip Khaytovich, a neuroscientist and professor at the Center for Neurobiology and Neurorehabilitation at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, told about this in the new issue of the Izvestia podcast.

"We give the phone to the child, one might say, from birth, so that he would not bother us or distract us. Accordingly, his brain is irreversibly formed under the influence of a virtual environment. Naturally, the fact that children watch and love to watch is not something that particularly strains and develops the brain. Obviously, this will not make the new generation of people think well," the expert believes.

According to him, a child may be born with the makings of a genius, but if he does not receive the necessary information at an early age, these makings will not be realized.

"If we scroll through the seals every day, the brain loses the ability to solve complex tasks," the scientist explained.

Moreover, he stressed, under the influence of primitive or destructive content, a child may form an incorrect picture of the world, which is very difficult to rebuild.

"Changing the worldview is difficult because it requires physically rebuilding connections in the brain. It's a slow, complicated, painful process. Our brain doesn't want to change, it's quite conservative," Khaytovich said.

At the same time, he noted, if parents still give gadgets to children, then it is necessary to limit the time to one hour.

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On October 21, child psychologist Natalia Naumova advised parents to negotiate with their children about installing digital controls on their devices. This is important in order not to lose the child's trust, otherwise he may, for example, not tell that he fell into the hands of scammers. In addition, children are often better versed in technology than adults and will find ways to circumvent control.

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