Students aged 6 to14 spent an average of 3 hours per day on screens, and 46.4 per cent of them were on devices for2 hours or more per day, according to a scientific study conducted by Kaspersky which evaluated their behaviour and attitudes using digital devices.
The study titled 'Screen time among school-aged children 6-14: a systematic review', further suggests that parents need to decide on how much time they should allow their wards on screens and how their behaviour is formed using additional screen time.
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"Children aged 6 to14 spent an average of 3 hours per day on different forms of screens, and most importantly, as much as 46.4 per cent of them are found to be on devices for2 hours or more per day," the study further suggests.
The study elucidates that parents' attitudes, beliefs, norms, and behaviours create a shared social environment that affects children's behaviour. "Children spending long hours on digital devices is not a good sign for their health as well as for their mental well-being. Chances are they might be lured in to banned sites as well as dangerous online games which are detrimental to their life. Parents need to monitor their wards and digital time within parents' supervision is one task that we need to practise," Educational Adviser of a community school said.
There are Safe Kids apps and digital parenting app where children can request extra device time in one click. Now parents don't need to add extra time in the settings box manually, instead they just need to approve or reject the request by tapping on the notification and set additional time limit. This feature is designed to help make communication between parents and children quick and convenient.
"Considering the fact, kids have their own devices from a rather early age, control of screen time is one of key features for effective digital parenting. Having said, the needs of both parents and children need to be continuously assessed. We believe that making this task digital will make the communication between adults and little ones more convenient and less stressful", said Emad Haffar, Head of Technical Experts, META at Kaspersky.
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