Until recently, 12-year-old Al Adib from Rangpur spent almost nine hours a day glued to a mobile phone.
If the device was taken away, he refused to eat. Sometimes he became angry and aggressive.
Gradually, he stopped playing outside altogether and remained attached to the screen until the battery died.
Alarmed by the growing addiction, his mother, schoolteacher Sifat Ara Islam, tried desperately to pull him away from digital screens.
She bought him cricket gear, footballs, badminton equipment and even kites to encourage outdoor play.
Slowly, the strategy began to work.
But Adib’s story is no longer unusual in Bangladesh.
Doctors, psychologists and researchers warn that excessive screen dependency among children is rapidly emerging as a major public health and social concern, increasingly linked to sleep deprivation, obesity, behavioural problems, poor concentration and mental health disorders.
A recent study conducted by researchers at icddr,b found alarmingly high levels of digital screen exposure among school-going children in Dhaka.
The study, conducted between 2022 and 2024 among 420 children aged six to 14 from six schools in the capital, revealed that more than 83% of children spend over two hours daily on screens -- far beyond internationally recommended limits.
On average, children were found to spend about 4.6 hours daily using smartphones, televisions, tablets, computers and gaming devices.
The findings, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research Human Factors, linked excessive screen exposure to sleep deprivation, obesity, headaches, eye strain and multiple mental health-related problems.
Researchers found that children using screens for more than two hours daily slept an average of only 7.3 hours per night, below the recommended eight to 10 hours necessary for healthy brain and physical development.
Around 14% of participating children were overweight or obese, while nearly two out of every five suffered from mental health-related difficulties including anxiety, emotional distress, hyperactivity and behavioural disorders.
More than one-third experienced eye problems and nearly 80% frequently suffered headaches.
Parents across the country say the findings mirror their daily struggles.
In Dhaka’s Shewrapara area, AKM Saidul Islam said his 13-year-old son now spends eight to 10 hours daily on mobile phones.
“He has become increasingly irritable and short-tempered,” the father said.
“One day, when we forcefully took the phone away, he even threatened to leave home.”
The family admitted that both parents’ busy work schedules contributed to the problem.
During childhood, they often used smartphones to distract the child while feeding him.
“That decision has now become a curse for us,” the father said.
Similar concerns are emerging outside the capital.
In Gafargaon of Mymensingh, two brothers aged 14 and 12 reportedly spend most of their time playing games on mobile phones and rarely interact with neighbors or relatives.
Their family says one child has become increasingly aggressive at home despite repeated efforts to reduce screen use.
Researchers say digital dependency is increasingly replacing outdoor play, family interaction and physical activity, especially in urban areas where playgrounds remain scarce and parents struggle to spend enough time with children.
Shahria Hafiz Kakon, lead researcher of the icddr,b study, urged parents to watch for warning signs including irritability, headaches, late sleeping, withdrawal from outdoor activities and difficulty concentrating.
“These may indicate that screen exposure is beginning to affect children’s physical and mental health,” she said.
She also warned that many parents themselves lack healthy digital habits.
“We are seeing that many guardians themselves spend more than four hours daily on phones,” she said.
Mental health experts say excessive digital stimulation from reels, videos and mobile games is weakening children’s concentration, memory and emotional development.
Bariul Islam, psychologist at Moner Bondhu, said many children are struggling to focus in real life because they have become dependent on rapid digital stimulation.
“In some extreme cases, children even attempt suicide,” he warned.
Doctors at Dhaka Shishu Hospital say they are increasingly treating children suffering from aggression, hyperactivity, speech delays, poor concentration and behavioural disorders linked to excessive mobile phone use.
Pediatric specialist Luna Parveen warned that excessive screen exposure can damage sleep, memory, attention span and emotional development while increasing obesity and aggressive behavior.
Experts stressed that the answer is not to ban technology entirely, but to create healthier digital habits through greater family interaction, outdoor activities, screen-free time and stronger awareness both at home and in schools.