The cognitive, social and emotional impact of the digital world on children’s lives was debated at a meeting on the occasion of National Children’s Week (October 7-15) at the Cultural and Artistic Creation Center of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA), in Tehran.
The role of parents in monitoring children’s access to online information and time spent in virtual space, gaming activities and social media networks, was discussed at the meeting.
In the digital age, parenting has become far more challenging, said Hossein Sheikholeslami, a doctoral student, Mehr News Agency reported.
Used wisely, there is no doubt that digital technologies have the power to enhance the quality of lives significantly, in both the developed and developing world.
However, there are multiple stories about detrimental, and potentially harmful, social decisions young people make as the virtual world takes precedence over the real world.
The new generation has access to a lot more information compared to the earlier generations and thanks to technology, children have a vast global perspective. “Not surprisingly, today’s kids behave and react differently compared to the way children did even a decade ago,” Sheikholeslami said.
However, parents should regulate and monitor children in a friendly manner, taking them into confidence and instilling the time-honored values in their kids. They should also try and see the world through their “children’s tech-filled eyes” while playing a supervisory role.
“We should provide appropriate solutions to the challenges thrown up by the digital world according to our social and cultural ethos,” he said.
University professor and researcher Alireza Sharifi emphasized the role of parents in the digital era in bridging the generation gap. “I don’t deny the strong influence of modern digital devices and applications on children, but I also believe in the influential role of family-based pedagogy on kids.”
Today’s popular computer games, like ‘Clash of Clans,’ have their own specific cultural and ideological messages, he said, which gamers should be aware of and “parents should not remain passive to the harmful content or yield before their super-informed kids,” Sharifi said.
The older generation should increase their level of information about the state of the art technology and move forward side by side with the younger generations.
“Today, society has to accept children as intelligent citizens and the digital world has challenged the conventional concept of the family order and system,” he added.
