Consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Ganesh Shetty says child guidance clinics are now seeing more children addicted to digital devices than to marijuana. He has sounded an alarm over what he describes as a pattern of “disconnection and misconnection, alienation and addiction” amongst Jamaican youngsters.

“These algorithms are created by behavioural specialists, and they drag you into something more interesting, something more wonderful, so that it will suck you in to addiction. I have more tablet addicts coming to my child guidance clinics than weed addicts nowadays,” Dr Shetty disclosed as he warned minors of the danger courted daily.

There are 23 of these clinics in hospitals and health centres throughout Jamaica, providing mental health and counselling services for clients up to 18 years old. Key services include behavioural assessments, emotional support, and treatment for conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression.

It is unclear if the troubling trend has emerged at all of them.

Dr Shetty, who is also acting director, adolescent mental health, in the Ministry of Health, made the disclosure on digital device addiction during last week’s press conference to present findings of the National Study on Social Media Use and the Protection of Children.

He outlined the toll addiction takes.

“We have teenagers who are so disconnected [from] everybody and everything. And this is what happens when you’re disconnected, and misconnected, and addicted: You don’t sleep; you don’t eat; you’re miserable. Next day, nobody can talk to you, including your mom. And sometimes, when you see a lot of shooting and fighting and cutting off head and cutting off fingers on your screen, you get disconnected [from] that human suffering. So somebody gets hit in school [and you are more] interested in taking a video of it and putting it online so it can go viral — not going and assisting that person,” he pointed out.

Dr Shetty noted that the attraction to screens has its genesis in seemingly harmless choices made by parents and guardians during their children’s early years. He cited the example of a mother who gives her two-year-old an iPad when out in public to prevent the child from “running up and down”. The woman is proud of her baby who appears well-behaved and does not cause “discomfort to others and mother”.

The mental health professional then described a scenario in which the mother has two more children at home, absent fathers, and she uses digital devices to fill the gap as she does household chores such as cooking.

“So she has to have the older two watch some TV and the younger one to deal with the tablet. What happens? The child gets disconnected from the human beings around her/him, and gets connected with the machine and, even at this age, can get addicted to the machine,” Dr Shetty outlined.

He said a child’s affinity for his electronic device only grows, becoming a competitor for the time spent on every other aspect of life.

“It can affect you, affect your energy, affect your focus, affect your memory, affect your school grades, affect what you want to become. You can’t become [a success] because you don’t have grades to go to college, but you have just grades enough to go to supermarket and push cart,” he warned.

Dr Shetty is heartened that there is recognition that a holistic approach is needed to tackle the areas of concern outlined in the study, which is said to be “one of the most comprehensive national assessments ever undertaken” on social media use by minors in Jamaica.

“I’m glad that most folks you interviewed think it has to be done together. Government cannot do it alone. Community cannot do it alone. Family cannot do it alone. Young persons have to be involved in it. It is a family and community effort,” he said.

According to the study, nine out of every 10 respondents, or 90.2 per cent, support government regulation of minors’ social media use, while 2.9 per cent expressed opposition. Nearly 84 per cent believe Jamaica should establish a clear national policy framework governing minors’ use of social media.