Parents’ vigilance while monitoring their ward`s online activity, is an indispensable duty. Several modern-day parenting, schools of thought profess that we must give adequate liberty and freedom for the creative and independent expression of our children to come to surface. Unfortunately, in the pursuit of providing them with a healthy space to explore their individuality, we end up unintentionally giving them a space that is more than necessary.
It is important to realise that giving controlled level of freedom and space to our kids, is a line that is not easy to toe, hence we must ourselves learn when and where we must draw the line so that children do not transgress boundaries.
To help us understand the concept of these limits and regulations better, one of the keynote speakers at the conference, Dr. Abhay Bansal, the Dean of the School of Computer Science Engineering, at Bennett University, gave us a few insights into how such an objective can be achieved.
He inaugurated his speech with an introduction about his line of work, which he deals with frequently, on both personal and professional fronts, in the digital landscape. He exclaimed how having 25K + followers on social media, has its set of challenges. Spilling the beans about his heartful banter with his daughter, he divulged, how she tells him that one can become a member of any social media site, by merely changing the DOB (date of birth). She also asked him if he could help her nab any offender on Instagram, by tracing his IP address. He assured her, that punitive action could be taken but tracking the website in one go was not a cakewalk.
He discussed how social media is an addiction, and when during exams or breaks in the classes, students are asked to take a break, they immediately, cling onto their phones, and if you take those cellphones away, they start acting restless.
He stated how his department has become a dungeon for potential cyber criminals. The students often end up harassing the teachers on online forums through fake accounts, if they have been reprimanded due to a culpable mistake at the student`s end. If lodged a complaint against them in a cyber cell, they can be subjected to criminal proceedings.
The digital spaces are being used for all sorts of negative purposes, like examination papers are getting leaked, due to which corrupt practices are coming to surface. For eg: If C++ or any other computer programming language is being taught, then before the teacher decides the question paper format, the duplicate question papers are being released on these money-making forums and they are being sold out, beforehand, for hefty amount of money.
Such rampant abject use of the internet is having a detrimental impact on the society. Students these days, have given up on the habit of writing down on a pen and paper and at once switch to either their tablet, cellphones or laptops for jotting down notes. As a result, the memory retention capacity is also diminishing with these changed habits. Fake websites are being circulated which are highly misleading and have an abysmal after-effect on the masses.
Other scholars at the conference, also added their inputs, on this similar topic with their research papers like Sancheeya Rajkhowa, a scholar from Gauhati University, who informed us about cyber safety for children and how children can fall prey to online harassers and criminals, hence we must always keep a check on our children`s online activities. Rahul Jain, a scholar from the Department of Law, at Bennett University, presented his paper and explained to us the role of AI in cyberbullying. SK Sharma, an LLM student from MJP Rohilkhand University, spoke about the POCSO Act, similar laws, policy gaps and the legal framework for child protection.
A very intriguing and informative session was curated by the presentations of these researchers. Akanksha Singh, a scholar from Dayalbagh Institute in Agra, explained to us in detail the implications of Digital Citizenship and Ethics and how to ensure a secure digital world for children.
Padmini Prabhakar, a renowned psychiatrist from Chandigarh, presented a paper, on childhood and the digital landscape, their bilateral relationship with each other, that can have various mental health implications and the consequent solutions for the same, for eg: optimal usage of the internet by children with specified time limits, age gating for monitoring their online content etc.
Dr. Rubi, Assistant Professor at SV Subharti University, presented a research paper on mental health and digital well-being of pre-adolescents and how being exposed to digital content without any gate keeping can have adverse effects on mental growth and can deeply influence their understanding of the world, while growing up.
Therefore, we can safely conclude that parental guidance and vigilance towards monitoring, controlling and limiting the access of their children to the digital content is highly warranted. If parents do not start this early on, then by the time their offspring reach adolescence or turn adults, they could become so prone to the negative usage of the internet, that only rehab and therapy can come to their rescue.