The Children’s Commissioner for England would probably have something to say about my mobile attachment. Writing in The Sunday Times last weekend, Dame Rachel de Souza suggested that parents should do more to protect their children from inappropriate content online, in part by being better at knowing what it is our kids are actually seeing on their varied devices.
I certainly recognise the challenge. And I regularly feel I have failed as a parent when I realise how much time my children – especially my son – spend on their internet-enabled devices. A recent YouGov survey found that nearly a quarter of kids are online for more than four hours a day, and that almost 70 per cent are on their screens for at least two hours daily. My son is definitely in that latter group. And there are some days when four hours would feel like a parenting win.
And yet I wonder whether it is entirely realistic to think that parents can change their own habits at the drop of a hat when the modern world is essentially a digital one.
square WILL GORE
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Read MoreEven if I were to agree that news consumption is optional, there are plenty of other things I do on my phone which are unavoidable elements of life’s proper administration. Last week, for instance, I had to arrange a remortgaging of our house, which I was able to do online. I also had to pay some bills and change a direct debit – all doable at the click of a few iPhone buttons.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the kitchen table, my wife was dealing with the arrangements for an upcoming birthday party (WhatsApp again), topping up the kids’ online school meal accounts and liaising with a music teacher via text message about some Duke of Edinburgh Award forms that needed signing for our daughter.
In some ways, the digital revolution has made it much easier for children and adults to identify with each other’s ways of life: we are all online out of both necessity and choice.
Communicating in person about the lives we’re living online is the best way to avoid misunderstandings and to keep our kids safe – and perhaps even to help me reduce my daily screen time to less than two hours and 21 minutes.
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