CPOY

Award of Excellence: A Growing Crisis

A Growing Crisis explores children’s mobile addiction and its impact on health, education and social life. The project will result in exhibitions, publications and digital platforms targeting parents, educators and policymakers and investment in children’s creativity. Children’s mobile addiction is a rising global crisis, reshaping the health, minds and social lives of the next generation. A Growing Crisis explores its causes and offers ways to restore balance. Through photography, I capture its effects—eye strain, posture damage, poor sleep, anxiety, depression, irritability, focus issues, fatigue and falling interest in studies, sports and friends—while showing how families, schools and communities can guide children toward healthier, happier lives. This story matters because mobile devices, once tools for learning and connection, are now displacing play, creativity and human interaction. The lack of playgrounds, parental indifference, limited family time and weak social structures deepens the crisis. If unchecked, it will harm children and create societies marked by isolation, nature distance and weak family bonds. My project contributes to the global conversation on childhood, technology and our future. Visually, I’ll take an intimate documentary approach: children on devices, family moments, and cramped urban spaces, alongside hopeful scenes of reading, drawing, playing and family time—highlighting both the risks and the possibilities of reclaiming childhood. I began this project as a student in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and now plan to expand it to some of the world’s most crowded cities—Dhaka, Mumbai, Manila, and Singapore. These urban centers, with limited space and high digital dependence, reveal how city life worsens the crisis. I’ve built ties with families, teachers and youth groups in Bangladesh and will create similar partnerships in these cities to ensure access and collaboration. I plan to dedicate 60 working days to fieldwork and complete the project within a year. Outcomes will include exhibitions, publications and digital platforms aimed at parents, educators and policymakers. Revealing both the scale of the problem and possible solutions, A Growing Crisis aims to spark action: families reducing mobile use, schools promoting digital literacy and societies investing in children’s play, creativity and growth. Above all, this work advocates guiding children with love, patience and joy—not punishment—as we work to protect the next generation.

Caption
Slide 8 of 12
A Growing Crisis
August 20, 2025

Four-year-old Turaj squints and closes his eyes while walking into a green field. Due to his mobile addiction and constant screen time, he struggles to tolerate the brightness of the sun. This photo was taken on August 20, 2025, in Pahartali, Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Tanzir Ahmed

Location
Location map
Chittagong, Bangladesh
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