Rajasthan Council of School Education issues advisory to stop gaming addiction in children

Taking note of the widespread gaming addiction among youth, the Rajasthan government has issued a special advisory to parents and teachers to protect children from online gaming addiction. The Rajasthan Council of School Education published an advisory on Saturday that includes technological suggestions for analysing children's gaming activity and participation.

Speaking on the increase in the number of cases of addiction being reported currently, Deputy commissioner of the Rajasthan council of school Education, Sana Siddiqui, said, "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." 

She further emphasised that these online games are readily available to youngsters and can be played on internet-connected devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones, hence widespread addiction has been caused. "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 to PTI.

Advisory for parents and teachers:

1. The guidelines advise parents and teachers to keep an eye on their children if they act strangely and if they are primarily engaged in online activities. They have to identify if the child has shown a rapid rise in time spent online, particularly on social media, and has become violent after spending time online. 

2. The guidelines recommended that parents set up an "internet gateway" at home to aid in effective content monitoring, logging, and use by the youngsters.

3. It is also advised that the child use a laptop in the family space to access the internet.

With the onset of the pandemic, children are bound to remain inside since the schools have been closed and they were not allowed to move outside; since then, they have been spending much time online. The internet became an integral part of everyone's life, from switching to online education to talking to friends over social media platforms or spending time playing with gadgets instead of physical sports.

Image: Pixabay

With PTI Inputs