Boy developed "toasted skin" condition from using a laptop every day

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Fears that modern electronic devices may harm children are nothing new. Gadgets with screens of any size have long been allegedly melting, rotting, and/or corrupting the brains of youths for decades. However, a medical case report published this week offers a new and alarming way our digital doodads may cause physical harm.

In BMJ Case Reports, two UK doctors, Mara Znagoveanu and Edward Artley, report the case of a boy who came to an emergency department with alarming marks on his abdomen. The marks were described as being in a patch about 15 centimeters (six inches) wide, made of flat, reddish-brown “interlacing lines forming irregular circles and a lace-like morphology.” A picture of the marks is here.

Mysterious marks

The boy, whom they described only as being in “mid-childhood,” was not in any pain, and the rash was not warm to the touch or tender. He and his...

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