We are living in strange times. Earlier, kids used to be beaten up because they spent a lot of time playing sports. Now, due to various apps, they are trapped.
Australia recently made a big move to protect kids online by banning social media for anyone under 16, and it’s a really welcoming step. In India, parents are noticing similar issues and are now pushing for more government support to manage children’s access to social media, streaming services, and online games.
According to a recent survey by LocalCircles, half of the urban parents in India say their kids are hooked on social media, video streaming, and gaming platforms. Many of these parents have seen concerning changes in their children’s behaviour, such as more aggression, impatience, and laziness, for starters. It turns out that kids between the ages of 9 and 17 are spending between three and six hours every day on popular platforms like YouTube, Prime Video, Netflix, Instagram, and Discord, with some kids even going beyond six hours.
Indian parents now want the government to introduce a law requiring parental consent for children under 18 to join social media, streaming, or gaming platforms. This idea is similar to Australia’s new rule and Norway’s proposal to raise the minimum age for social media to 15. Many parents in India even support verifying children’s ages using Aadhaar to make sure they’re not sneaking around restrictions.
LocalCircles is actively sharing these survey results with government agencies, including the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). He’s hopeful that India will consider laws similar to Australia’s to keep children’s screen time in check.
The case of OTT is a little different from Video Games and Social Media. If parents buy the streaming service subscription then naturally kids tend to sneak in. In this case, a normal passcode can be highly effective without any friction. But the government must intervene because this is a severe threat to the brain of our future generation.
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