Even though child gadget addiction has reached an alarming level, not many parents realize the dangers their children face. This is despite the fact that parents have a huge role in monitoring and limiting their children’s access to gadgets.
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JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Even though child gadget addiction has reached an alarming level, not many parents realize the dangers their children face. This is despite the fact that parents have a huge role in monitoring and limiting their children’s access to gadgets.
Parents should be firm in setting limits to gadget use in order to protect their children from gadget addiction. Many have yet to see this as a serious issue and some parents are still using gadgets to “compensate” for their decreased interaction time with their children as they get busier at work. Furthermore, parents often use gadgets to distract their children so that they attend to their daily activities undisturbed.
Child and family psychologist Anna Surti Ariani of the Integrated Clinic at the University of Indonesia Psychology School said in Jakarta on Monday (23/7/2018) that the absence of parents’ strictness in limiting their children’s access to gadgets, especially in playing online games, was a major cause of childgadget addiction. Another factor was parents’ poor technology literacy and lack of confidence in setting rules for their children, for fear that their children would get angry when their gadgets were taken away.
“Many parents are technology illiterate and can easily be deceived by their children. Parents often do not understand that certain applications or content are not for children and do not know how to activate their gadgets’ parental control that makes this negative content inaccessible to children,” Anna said.
Despite serving as a communication tool to expand perspectives and numerous other benefits, gadgets could have negative impacts that endangered children. Currently, gadgets’ negative potential seemed to be more dominant, including commercial information, fake ads, violent content and pornography.
“Unfortunately, parents have low awareness that their children can be easily exposed to negative content on the internet. For instance, many parents are shocked that adult content can be accessed [on the internet] simply by typing ‘porn’ in Google. This is not to mention the content on social media sites such as Facebook,” National Digital Literacy Movement chair Dedy Permadi said in Jakarta on Monday.
Child gadget addiction was made worse by parents who contradicted each other in placing limits for their children. The mother may have set strict limits, but then the father gave the child access to the gadget, as long as the child did not say anything to the mother.
Psychiatrist and National Narcotics Agency (BNN) rehabilitation center head Iman Firmansyah said that parents should always monitor their children, and even play online games with them, to ascertain that the content their children were accessing were age appropriate and sould not lead to addiction. Parents should be wise in giving access to gadgets to their children, in accordance with their age.
Nita, 38, a woman in Malang, East Java, said she began introducing gadgets to her child at 5 years old. “When I was busy with work, I gave my son a gadget so that he stayed calm,” she said.
For working parents, it was not easy to monitor their children’s gadget use at home. “We both work and it’s hard to monitor our children when they’re using gadgets at home. So, we only give them access to gadgets on weekends,” said Rahma, 43, of South Tangerang.
University of Indonesia social psychologist Laras Sekarasih said that, in combating child gadget addiction, educating and raising awareness among parents was needed on the safe ways of introducing gadgets to children. “The most effective way is for them to help their children understand. Start by asking their children on the various features they access on their gadgets and social media sites. Next, [parents must] ask their children to explain why they love those features,” Laras said.
“If the content is age inappropriate, ask them how they access it. Do not get angry immediately, as it would only be counterproductive and would lead to them accessing the content secretly,” she said.
Schools’ role
Apart from families, schools also have an important role in protecting children from gadget addiction. Currently, schools have different policies on gadgets. Some impose a full ban, but others have certain rules for students in using gadgets.
SDN Kebon Jeruk 11 elementary school in Jakarta applies e-learning through an application called Edmodo to share homework with students in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades. Teachers also educate students on healthy use of the internet. “Students learn about advancements in technology, but monitoring is still necessary,” said Utami Dewi, the school’s Arts and Culture and English teacher.
Among children, gadgets with internet connection are useful for various purposes. “Apart from entertainment on social media, we also use gadgets to find study materials online,” said Della, an eight-grader at SMPN 229 junior high school in Jakarta.
Education psychologist Najeela said that children should be given the opportunity to understand how to use technology to do work and collaborate digitally. However, strict rules on gadget use were required in school policies.