The Impact of Media on Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Narrative Review

Although mobile technologies are a fundamental part of daily life, several studies have shown increased use of electronic devices, TV, and gaming in children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus affected almost every country causing uncertainty about the future, social isolation, and distress. This narrative review has searched the scientific literature in the field focusing on children. A non-systematic literature review was conducted in May 2022. Different databases were used to search the studies for the present review, such as 'Google Scholar', 'PubMed', 'Web of Science'. Keywords for the search included 'screen time', 'media', 'digital use', 'social media', 'COVID-19', 'pandemic', 'lockdown', 'children', “effect of media on children during COVID'. It was found that youths seem to have used technologies to cope with the difficulties brought by the pandemic being at higher risk for the onset or aggravating of anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit/hyperactive symptoms. On the other hand, other studies have suggested that the increased media use can have had positive effects on children depending on usage and monitoring by the parents.Funding Information: This study received no specific fund.Declaration of Interests: The authors have no competinginterest to declare.