TRA discusses initiatives to reduce the screen time of children

Muscat: Nearly 86 percent of children use the Internet in the Sultanate of Oman, of which 43.5 percent of them use it to search for information while 34 percent of them use it for entertainment and communication according to a study last by the Ministry of Social Development a few years ago.

The details were revealed report by the Telecom Regulation Authority (TRA) during a dialogue session on Sunday said nearly 21 of children browse social media for more than five hours a day.

The dialogue session also discussed the proposed law to limit children’s use of the Internet in terms of conditions and procedures apart from initiatives by telecom companies.

Hamida al Ajmi of TRA defined a child according to the International Telecommunication Union as any person under the age of 18 years according to Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, noting that the Omani Child Protection Law No. 22/2014 defined a child as any human being who has not completed the age of eighteen years.

TRA initiatives to protect children using telecommunications services include the following initiatives the 'Be Aware' and the national awareness campaigns.

Omantel also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to support child care programmes in the Sultanate of Oman, and enable the Secure Net programme with parental control features such as content filtering, pause, break time, and study time.

Safe Net service acquisition links also enabled the service, which is designed to protect users and their children from online threats such as viruses, malware, phishing attacks, and other malicious activities.

TRA also suggested the use of software and tools to help protect and control content, guidelines for children (a program to recover from screen and internet addiction) in cooperation with telecommunications companies, and establishing clear and easy mechanisms for reporting any violations of children’s rights or privacy, including information and guidance for users on the procedures to be followed.