Digital Smarts - Screen Time and the Pandemic – The Psychological Effects

While some research is showing that children and younger people are less likely to have their health impacted by the coronavirus, experts expect they will experience indirect health care-related effects such as missed detection of delayed health development milestones, widespread omissions of routine childhood vaccinations and delays in seeking care for illnesses not related to the virus, researchers reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.  In addition to these indirect health risks, the findings also showed that social and mental health could see an impact from pandemic-related factors as well, including reductions in support for children with supplemental health care needs; lost social interaction leading to increased screen time; school cancellations that may worsen food insecurity; and forced isolation and increased screen addiction.