Digital Game Addition Workshop organized by the Ministry of Health took place in Ankara on 7-8 November 2018 with the participation of Deputy Health Minister Prof. Dr. Emine Alp Meşe.
40 academicians from thirteen provinces attended the Digital Game Addition Workshop organized for the first time in Turkey. During the two-day program, positive-negative effects of digital games on social, emotional, physical, cognitive and linguistic development of children and adolescents were discussed.
Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of National Education, Information Technologies and Communication Institution and Turkey Green Crescent Society attended the program.
“Tablets and phones are used as silencers”
In her inaugural speech, Deputy Minister Prof. Dr. Alp Meşe underlined that tablets and phones are sometimes used as silencers by parents, and added that “I am a mother too and we have many responsibilities in this issue. Sometimes we encourage children, because it seems easy to distract children with a game or cartoon while feeding them, etc. We should firstly question ourselves as parents.”
Children try to fill the emotional gap which actually should be filled with love, and parents should spend more time with their kids. We can save our children by creating safe playgrounds.”
46% of children use internet everyday
Digital game addiction is a recent public health problem increasing day by day and threatening the entire world.
According to a research of Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) on children of 6-15 ages, children start using computer at the age of 8, internet at 9 and mobile phone at 10.
The results of the same research put forth that 46% of all children use internet on daily basis. The reason of internet connection is “homework and learning” by 85% and “playing games” by 80%.
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