Children have become more reliant on technology since the start of the pandemic. As parents, we have supported this since lockdown. However, allowing more time on devices is very hard to reverse, as this article points out. Belinda Parmar, CEO of The Empathy Business, warns, “I think we are going to look back on this moment and say: ‘what were we thinking, giving kids unfettered access to the Pandora’s box of the internet?’ I’d like tech companies to be better regulated, and more controls to be put in place.” When combined with the warnings from the creators of the technology in the film, the Social Dilemma, help is needed for all parents of young children to manage this addiction. Parenting expert Noël Janis-Norton, “Parents felt sorry for children cooped up during lockdown or isolation periods, and guilty that they’re working and they can’t be with them…In those months kids got into screen habits, and now they do not want to give up those habits.” Fortunately, solutions exist to manage access to apps and web pages which can work on school managed devices when this is at home (using our school solutions for Microsoft/Chromebook/Tablets respectively) and the smartphones Blabloo and Geniora (in Europe and Asia respectively).

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/new-rules-childrens-lockdown-screen-time