Y-Gen succumbs to mobile addiction? NCPCR study reveals that over 37.8% of 10-year-olds have FB accounts
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New Delhi, July 27: In a matter of concern, a study conducted by the child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has found that a large proportion of 10-year-olds have social media accounts.
Last week NCPCR released its report on ‘Effects (Physical, Behavioural and Psycho-social) of using Mobile Phones and other devices with Internet Accessibility by Children’.
As per the data released by the report, about 37.8% and 24.3% of 10-year-old children have an account on Facebook and Instagram, which is seemingly in contravention to the guidelines laid down by various social networking platforms. The age barrier for creating an account on Facebook and Instagram happens to be 13 years.
Among the children who have accounts on the major social networking apps/sites, Facebook (used by 36.8 percent) and Instagram (used by 45.50 percent) are the most popular.
Besides the data also revealed that only 10 percent of the children like to use smartphones for online learning and education, while over 59.2 percent of children use their smartphones for instant messaging applications.
Expressing the concern over the data, NCPCR in its report pointed out that the social media platforms contain and disperse such a variety of content, a lot of which is neither appropriate nor conducive for children. It also emphasized the need for proper oversight and stricter enforcement in this matter.
According to the data collected, 78.90 percent of children said that they spend between 0-2 hours on their smartphones using the internet, playing games, listening to music, chatting, among others, which is quite less compared to popular perception.
While 15.80 percent of the children spend 2-4 hours on smartphones, 5.30 percent spend more than 4 hours on the same.
As per the study, over 23.80 percent of children use smartphones while they are in bed which is quite a substantial proportion and a cause for concern. The data also indicates that the use of a smartphone in bed increases with the increase in age of children.
As per the available literature, the use of smartphones/smart devices, which have vibrant screens and motion pictures at a minimum of 36 frames per second, before going to sleep has many negative and detrimental effects on the state of mind and health of humans, especially children.
Moreover, the study also indicated that about 13 percent of children 'always' use smartphones while studying, 23.30 percent 'frequently' use them. Meanwhile, only 32.7 percent of children 'never check their smartphones while studying'.
The study said that "Approximately, 37.15 percent of children, always or frequently, experience reduced levels of concentration due to smartphone use."
As per the studies, around 72.70 percent of teachers had no prior experience of using smartphones/internet devices and most of the teachers 54.1 percent who participated in the study believed the use of smartphones in the classroom is “immensely or somewhat distracting”.