Children's health in the digital age

TL;DR

This review highlights how increased indoor and online activity among children reduces natural sunlight exposure, leading to metabolic and neurodevelopmental risks similar to substance abuse syndromes.

Contribution

It proposes a comprehensive model linking digital overexposure to long-term health risks in children, integrating current neurobiological and metabolic research findings.

Findings

Reduced sunlight exposure affects child development.

Overexposure to digital environments can deregulate neurotransmitter pathways.

Online activity abuse in children resembles substance addiction.

Abstract

Environmental studies, metabolic research, and state of the art in neurobiology point towards the reduced amount of natural day and sunlight exposure of the developing childs organism, as a consequence of increasingly long hours spent indoors online, as the single unifying source of a whole set of health risks identified worldwide, as is made clear in this review of the current literature. Over exposure to digital environments, from abuse to addiction, now concerns even the youngest (ages zero to 2), and triggers, as argued on the basis of clear examples herein, a chain of interdependent negative and potentially long-term metabolic changes. This leads to a deregulation of the serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitter pathways in the developing brain, currently associated with online activity abuse or internet addiction, and akin to that found in severe substance abuse syndromes. A general functional working model is proposed under the light of evidence brought to the forefront in this review.