NEWS: Teaching children responsible use of technology

WITH school holidays around the corner, many parents are scrambling to find classes for their children. Not just any ordinary class but classes with qualified instructors and assured results are the ones to sign up for.

More often than not, it is the parents who are the enthusiastic ones in this pursuit. For many parents, it is important to equip their children with extra talent or skills they don’t get to learn in the school system.

In this competitive spirit, it is common to hear one set of parents say to another that their offspring is able to surf the Net for hours from the age of three, for example. Or maybe even able to create mini computer programmes at the age of five.

With all the hype on the Internet, information and communications technology (ICT), knowledge economy and smart schools, such skills among young children are encouraged and admired.

However, certain quarters find that exposing children to computers (and ICT) at an early age comes with price – perhaps, even the experience of childhood as many adults remember. Rather than run in the playground, most children prefer to be stuck in front of a computer which is detrimental to their health in the long run and exposes them to marketing from organisations that can be (at times) socially irresponsible.

The Alliance for Childhood (www.allianceforchildren.net), for one, has been calling for a halt to the use of computers by young children. The group said one should be aware of possible harmful effects such as repetitive motion injuries and eye strain from overuse of computers and computers that are inappropriately positioned for children.

If children are to use computers, Alliance for Childhood said they should be taught to limit their usage to reasonable lengths of time and should be supervised while using computers in ways that might expose them to inappropriate material or practices.

Technology is never “just” a tool in the sense that it is solely up to us how to use it. Like every powerful tool, its use often alters the way we live and engage the world.

According to Alliance for Childhood, those changes are rarely all good or all bad and we often adopt them without thinking about the effects they have on our lives.

“This is why we must teach our children to be responsible in contemplating their use of technology. And that’s also why it’s essential to be responsible in selecting the technologies that are most appropriate for educating our children,” the group said.

That statement certainly warrants some thought. In the rush to be tech-savvy, perhaps it is time to pause and reflect whether we’re doing the right thing in the right way.