Lifeguards are warning parents that their obsession with smartphones is leading to an increase in children drowning.
Safety experts often warn that drowning can be silent, with many examples showing how kids can die in packed pools without anyone noticing.
Moms and dads have therefore been urged to watch their little ones like hawks when they head into the water.
But modern parents are increasingly being distracted by their mobiles — often with deadly consequences.
A direct link has increasingly been made between kids dying in the water and parents focusing on their phones. And authorities around the world are now explicitly warning people after noticing the shocking trend.
The authorities in the United Arab Emirates warned parents to put down their mobiles at the pool after two boys, ages eight and nine, drowned in separate incidents in June.
Parents in the US were also recently urged to turn their phones off after drownings of children aged one to four in the states reached twice the national average.
Tiffaney Isaacson, a senior injury prevention specialist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital said parents need to decide “who will be the boss of the pool at the poolside that day” adding “they should turn their cellphone off.”
Link: https://nypost.com/2018/08/16/parents-phone-obsession