For a long time, if one could afford it, parents were hell bent on filling a child’s “free time” with as many activities as possible. However, according to this New York Times article when the pandemic rescheduled our lives “parents were left scrambling to fill vast hours of unscheduled time…and keeping children engaged became the bane of parents´ existence (and) screens became the default child care for younger kids and social lifelines for older ones”. But returning to the extracurricular activities is not good for mental health. The author of the article suggests that perhaps giving children time to come up with ideas to entertain themselves could be positive, and certainly involving themselves in civic participation, supporting good causes, could help build awareness of pressing issues in the world. But from our perspective the main issue is also about how indulged children have become with the screens of their devices. Changing this near-addiction is not easy. When a child uses a school device that has our Classroom Management software on it a parent can freeze the screen of the device and also manage the filter on the browser, and in this way ensure that the child can only access suitable content for them and that they help prevent addiction as much as possible. We even have a smartphone for children that enables the parent to remotely manage what apps the child can use and when, and what web pages they can access. All of these things will help children grow up in a safer and more secure online world and teach them values that will make them better citizens of the future.   

#screentime #education #parents

nytimes.com/2021/07/09/opinion/culture/kids-schedule-parents.html