Canary Island students use mobile phones more, with less parental control and more physical discomfort

Canary Island students between 4th grade of Primary and 1st year of Baccalaureate are increasingly using mobile devices, and more than half report experiencing physical discomfort from their use, which is increasingly less controlled by parents.

These are the main conclusions drawn from the II Digital Barometer prepared by the Elder Museum of Science and Technology of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and which were explained this Friday by the project coordinator, researcher Armando Ojeda, who assured that these data are a "wake-up call" to institutions and families about the use of mobile phones among minors.

According to these data, collected from nearly 1,800 Canary Island schoolchildren in questionnaires conducted at the museum itself during school visits, 100% of respondents have a mobile device, including 4th grade primary school students, who are only 9 or 10 years old.

This barometer compares results with data extracted five years ago, in the 2018/2019 academic year, with an important nuance that occurred in between: the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the expert, this fact has had an impact on the results of this II Digital Barometer compared to the first one, since the pandemic "has contributed to a much greater intensification of the use of digital spaces among young people," as classes were held remotely, encouraging the use of these devices, and parents "have seen that their children stay quiet if they put screens in front of them."

The results of this work are known just four months after the Canary Island Government decided to limit the use of mobile phones in schools in the archipelago, in Infant, Primary and Compulsory Secondary Education, as well as in basic vocational training, after an intense debate with the educational community.

However, Armando Ojeda wanted to make it clear that this limitation of use is not "really relevant" in this study. "In February, a large part of the data had already been collected. Even so, what is really important is the use that is given to digital spaces outside the classroom, so the limitation is not influential in the study," he explained.

The press conference to present the barometer data was also attended by the Minister of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, Poli Suárez, and the director of the Elder Museum, José Gilberto Moreno.

Suárez stressed that these data come to endorse what they "had already been warning" from his department, and that it is necessary to "educate not only students about the use of mobile devices," but "also families."

He was "surprised" by the increase in the daily use of mobile phones by the students surveyed, which has increased by eight percentage points compared to the previous barometer (up to 62%), so he has advanced that it may be necessary to "program other extracurricular activities" for these young people.

Regarding the decision to limit the use of mobile phones in classrooms, Suárez indicated that, in the visits they have made since then to educational centers in the archipelago, their management and teaching teams have told them "that the measure has improved coexistence in the centers," so he has called to continue working in this line "to achieve a good use of these devices not only inside the classrooms, but also outside, with families."

For his part, José Gilberto Moreno detailed that there are "potential risk problems" that arise from these results, such as the "alarming use of hours a day on social networks", the increasingly "frequent" meetings of minors with unknown people, or the onset of physical problems such as neck pain, back pain or vision problems that is generating the consumption of these devices.

Thus, the surveyed students reported that they use, on average, up to six social networks, this figure being higher among girls in all courses, and that the number of applications is increasing as age also increases (going from four in 4th grade of Primary to 7.4 in 4th grade of ESO).

In addition, more than half (51%) admit to experiencing physical discomfort from mobile phone use at least occasionally, 3% of them report it often, a figure that has increased by five percentage points compared to the 2018/2019 academic year.

In that sense, the researchers were surprised that 52% of 4th grade Primary students reported feeling neck pain, back pain or vision problems after using their mobile devices.

They have also warned of a certain relaxation in terms of parental control of students, as parents tend to supervise the use their children make of devices more occasionally, according to the young people: 55% say they are controlled and 31% say they do so sometimes, compared to 58% and 23%, respectively, in the previous barometer.

For their part, the students who report never having met with unknown people they contacted through social networks or video games has fallen by six percentage points to 75% of the total.

Another highlight of the report shows that 40% of the students who answered the questionnaire play video games every day, a percentage that increases in the last years of Primary and the first of Secondary, but decreases from 2nd year of ESO.