The Rajasthan government on Saturday issued an advisory for parents and teachers suggesting measures to safeguard children from addiction to online gaming, reported PTI. The advisory issued by the Rajasthan Council of School Education details technical points which are helpful in monitoring the activities and involvement of the children in gaming.
The advisory suggested establishing an “internet gateway” at home which will help in effective monitoring, logging, and use of content by the child.
The parents and teachers have been asked to keep a watch if children are behaving in an abnormal manner and whether they are mostly involved in online activities, a sudden increase in time spent online, especially on social media, and they turn aggressive after using the internet. The advisory also suggested that it should be ensured that the child accesses the internet from a computer placed in a family space.
Rajasthan govt issues advisory for parents & teachers suggesting measures to protect children from addiction to online gaming
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 19, 2021
“In this age of technology, online gaming is very popular among children. The closure of schools due to the coronavirus pandemic has increased the use of mobile and internet among children, due to which the trend of online gaming among children has also increased rapidly,” Sana Siddiqui, deputy commissioner of the council, was quoted by Indian Express.
She said online games are easily accessible to children and are played on devices like computers, tablets, and mobiles connected with the internet.
“These games are designed in such a way that they excite the player to the extent of passion to play further. This is the reason why players become addicted to it and eventually suffer from gaming disorder due to which the educational and social life of the child is adversely impacted,” Siddiqui said.
Fueled by Covid19 induced lockdown, the gaming sector has grown exponentially in terms of users, games, and attracting investments. In related news, the Delhi High Court bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh in July this year had directed the concerned authorities of the Central Government (Ministry of Woman and Child Development and Ministry of Law ) to decide the representation made by petitioners seeking direction to the Union of India to consider formulating a national policy to protect the children from online games addiction and also to constitute a regulatory authority to monitor and rate the content of both offline and online games.
Hearing a similar plea (WP No. 13600 of 2021) on game addiction, the Madras High Court said that elected governments are required to take decisions on such matters of policy. The Court disposed of the plea by permitting the petitioner to make representations to the Union of India through its Ministry of Women and Child Development and to the State through the Department perceived to be the most appropriate by the petitioner.