Today’s children spend more and more time on the Internet, especially during wartime, when distance learning is conducted and walking outside is dangerous. This not only affects their lifestyle, but can also negatively affect their health. According to research, excessive use of gadgets often leads to vision problems, sleep disturbances, insufficient physical activity and even psychological burnout. However, many parents are not always able or willing to monitor the time their children spend online.
Research results
Rakuten Viber conducted poll, to find out how much time children spend online and how adults try to regulate it. The results showed that 68% of children are online for more than three hours a day. Another 15% of users spend 2-3 hours online, and only 8% limit their time on the Internet to one hour.
The answers to the question about the time spent by children on the network were distributed as follows:
3+ hours a day — 68%;
2–3 hours a day — 15%;
1+ hour a day — 9%;
Less than one hour — 8%.
This is a cause for concern, as prolonged screen time can have serious consequences for a child’s physical and mental health.
How adults control children’s access to the Internet
It is interesting that 73% of adults said they try to limit children’s time on the Internet. However, the results of the survey show that in practice these restrictions are not always effective.
The distribution of answers among parents looks like this:
They are always limited to 45%;
Do not restrict at all – 27%;
Restricted as punishment — 15%;
Restricted only on weekdays – 7%;
They limit very rarely – 6%.
Such a discrepancy between parents’ aspirations and children’s real time online indicates the difficulty of controlling this process.
How to ensure the safety of children on the Internet
Rakuten Viber pays attention to the importance of children’s safety on the Internet. For users under the age of 16, special settings are applied: no advertising, no adult content, and a high level of account confidentiality.
In addition, the messenger offers several functions to protect children:
- Requests for messages from strangers – all messages from unknown contacts fall into a separate folder.
- Control requests to add to groups – settings limit requests only from contacts on the friends list.
- Contact blocking — the ability to block unwanted contacts.
- Caller ID – the system warns about possible spam calls or fraudsters.
These simple tools will help make the online space safer for children.
The Internet has become an integral part of the lives of modern children, but excessive use of digital technologies carries many risks. The responsibility for the safety of children online lies both with parents and with companies that provide digital services. Maintaining a healthy balance between time spent online and offline is a key challenge for today’s society.
