Ibraheem Menk – The Screen Glued Child

			Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen Illa Allah al Amin Wahby Hina serine
also Livanos Sallim ala ha Tamil Gambia imam in more serene Nabina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi
edgey marine Allah Marisa Allah Allah Masha Allah Who Salah one to January Husna either Sheikh salah
or BSC ro Allah to answer with him bill here will be canister in we thank Allah Allah Boulez, he
will Jellal for having gathered us here today. And we ask Allah subhanho wa taala, to surround us
with the mullah ICA, and to cause his mercy and his Sakina to descend upon us. And to raise us with
the Gambia I like mo Salatu was Salam, and those whom he has mentioned with them, I mean,
		

			if I were to tell you that there is a substance that is highly addictive,
		

			and this substance is accessible to all,
		

			or many of the population,
		

			what we would say is we have got a pandemic, we've got a problem, we've got a serious uphill battle
with this, because many people will try it out.
		

			In fact, when it comes to hard drugs, like cocaine, heroin, and all of these substances, there is a
financial factor that is preventing people from engaging. So they are some who wants to try, who
want to engage, but they don't have the money to do so. Today, we have something that is so
addictive, and detrimental to us that is in every single one of our pockets. And that is the
smartphone. You know, many people call it the smartphone. In fact, globally, it is called the
smartphone, but these phones are dumbing us down. And if the effect of these phones on our minds and
our health is so bad, that we can see it in adults, you can see that the attention span is now
		

			somewhere between 30 to 40 seconds at a time. And it's getting less and less. Imagine the effect
that it is having on young children. You see a child as young as two years old, two and a half years
old, knowing how to navigate a phone. Yes, that shows you the intelligence of Inserm that Allah
subhanho wa Taala has given but that child should not be exposed to those screens at that age. What
are they doing on a screen? Why do they have a tablet of their own? Allahu Akbar, at the age at the
tender age, the child is actually swiping through videos, going through games playing games on these
things. That child is meant to be playing with toys, trucks, you know, dolls, etc. That's the age at
		

			which they engage and they interact in the imagination grows with dumbing them down by giving them
these smartphones. It's not really the smartphone, this phone may be smart. But it's actually the
dumb phone because it makes us dumb. And the reality is, if we look at ourselves and how addicted we
are to these devices, what do we do now for our entertainment? What do we do we get onto our phones,
any spare moment, your phone is out of your pocket in your hands. And you're engaging with that
screen, let alone that if we are sitting in a social setting today, at least two or three people out
of five will have their phone out. And they're engaging on that phone. So we are sitting together,
		

			but nobody's talking to each other. We will now engaging with the phone will not care about the man
in front of us. What has he done to us what's so enticing have done that phone that we can't let go
of it. My point today is not to address the adults, but it's to address the young children or to
address the adults about the young children. What are we doing to their minds, we're boiling them
and making them into little cabbages where they won't be able to understand they won't be able to
interact. They won't be able to do anything tomorrow more than 20 seconds. Why? Because that clip
that's on the phone is 20 seconds long. So the child can only pay attention for 20 seconds now when
		

			they get to primary school and the teachers trying to keep them
		

			engaged for 20 minutes. That's too long. That child is trained to pay attention for 20 seconds. And
the parents are happy to give their children these tablets and these phones, why does it keeps them
quiet? Why are they so quiet? You know, there is an old adage, they say that if the child is making
noise, then everything's okay. But if the child is quiet, something's wrong. Go and watch out, go
and see what's going on. Why is the child quiet? Children shouldn't be making noise. You see, these
children are quiet because they so engaged in that world, that nothing else matters tomorrow, they
will have behavioral problems. They will give you issues. They will not listen to you when you tell
		

			them to do something. Why? Because their brains are cabbages. They are gone. And I want to draw our
attention to this because recently I heard of a school in Harare, in Harare, Zimbabwe, were two
children at the age of seven to 805 to six, grade two and grade one. And they were found engaging in
sexual acts. Allahu Akbar. Where did this come from? How did this happen? How did an innocent child
at the age of six to seven years old learn how to engage in a sexual act? How? Where did they get it
from? They got it from their phones, Brothers and Sisters in Islam. They got it from the tablets.
And this is becoming an increasingly worrisome problem. It's happening across the globe. It's not
		

			only here, you have counselors in the UK in the state telling us that they're dealing with children
that raped another child at the age of eight years old, Allahu Akbar. Where did that child learn to
do that? They're accessing all sorts of material online, anything and everything that's available to
an adult online is available to a child as well. Do you know what the current barrier to entry into
a * website is today? The barrier that is there is simply Are you older than 18 years old? If
yes, click Yes, the child just has to click Yes. And they have access to all of the * on the
internet. Allahu Akbar. This is what we are putting into our children's hands. This is what they
		

			have access to go on to the games, let's go on to the games that they play. What are these these
games teaching them? They're teaching them violence. So if you look at the game, the child is
playing. It's either with a rifle, and they've shooting someone down there sniping another person,
they're killing a person, that's the goal of the game. Or they are meant to come out of a car and
beat somebody up or chase someone in a car, catch that person and tear them apart, do all sorts of
these things. What is that doing to the psyche of a two year old, a five year old, it's teaching
that child to be violent in reality. And we expose our children to these games for hours on end, the
		

			average time that a child spends on the phone today is between three to four hours, that's an
average, some children are spending entire nights playing games. Why? Because they have access to
those games. You know, there was a child that I heard about that I read about actually on a
reputable website. And this child was actually had stopped communicating altogether. They stopped
talking completely. So the mother and father were worried what happened, took the child to the
emergency rooms, etc. And they came to realize that that child was spending entire nights on games
online, playing with people following strangers. We don't even know if those people are adults or
		

			children. We have no idea playing with these people online. So the child became so attached to that
gaming world that
		

			he or she did not want to interact in reality. Another case, I spoke to the man myself, he says my
son actually didn't believe his hands were really his hands. When he came out of that game, he
believed that his hands will not his hands. Why? Because in virtual reality, you've got these
buttons of soul that you hold on to and you enter into that world. This is another level of gaming
altogether, where you actually feel that this is another world or to the altogether. So he's holding
on to these battens and he sees only these virtual hands. That's all he sees off his body. So when
he came out of the game, this is about a 15 to save.
		

			than 20 year old adult, we can call him an adult. Yes, he's a child, but he's reaching adulthood, in
fact, he may be an adult. So he actually believed that his hands were not his hands, he had to be
taken to a psychiatrist, and they had to convince him that these are your real hands. The ones in
the game are not real.
		

			Allahu Akbar, another child, felt that because he died in the game, he was dead. He told his
parents, I'm dead now bury me, gone. They had to convince him that he is alive and living.
		

			These are real examples that I'm giving you of people that are actually going through these issues.
So when you give your child that phone understand that you are giving them a key to all the evil
that is out there as well, yes, I'm not saying that the iPhone and the tablet and the smartphone
hasn't got its benefit. But what does the child know? If you don't limit that and you don't control
what they're watching on those devices, they will watch anything and everything.
		

			That tablet, that phone, that device that they're engaging with is the only interaction with the
outside world today. Try and tell your child to go and play outside in the garden. If they're used
to playing on that phone, they will kick up a tantrum, they won't want to listen to you, they won't
want to do it. They try and tell their child I'm just going popping out to the shops come with me
see what they say they prefer to sit on their devices. What are they watching on those devices? Do
we even know? Does any one of us know? There is a game where they actually * other individuals,
they * other individuals? What are we teaching our children? And I'm speaking about the so
		

			passionately because you see children all the time on the devices. You see adults on the devices.
You see, when the child sees us so much on that device. It can't.
		

			It wonders, this child begins to wonder what's so enticing on that. I also need to see, you see,
once the child sees it wants to do no matter what you say. So when your child is speaking to you,
what do you do, you're on your phone, you're going through videos, you're going through messages,
you're going through emails, so you don't pay attention. You're showing that child that even the
phone the phone is even more important than you
		

			remember the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Allah could look Umrah in what could
look on Masuda Nara. Yeti, every one of you is a leader and every one of you will be answerable
about the flock. Every single one of us is a leader in his home. The father is a leader the mother
is a leader and we are answerable to Allah subhanahu wa taala for how they behave at a young age, we
are meant to give them a good tarbiyah when you give that child the phone limit that time limit the
content that they are able to access you know, you get these devices that you can install onto your
Wi Fi router. It's called a net nanny. It prevents the child from accessing *, violence
		

			etc. put that onto your Wi Fi router. Perhaps some of US adults will even benefit from that and
throw the key away nobody should know the key a foreign person from outside the home should know how
to open up that router. And perhaps if you do trust yourself, then you can have the key and you are
able to open it when you want to if you have to etcetera, may Allah subhanahu wa to Allah protect us
may Allah subhanahu wa taala protect our children. But as much as we make that dua it is important
for us to realize that we are the prime carers of these children and they are our future. If we
don't do something about it today. It will become an IT has already become a pandemic it will become
		

			worse and it will only get worse and worse. And God knows what the implications are. May Allah
subhanahu wa taala grant us the ability to practice upon what has been said I mean, also Allahu wa
salam al Baraka ala Nabina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi Adjumani