Deepti Sutaria is an Internet Safety Advisor and a Cyber Psychologist, formulating laws and policies against women and children on online crimes. She has headed Ted-Ed club for kids and working on halting Cyber Violence. She represented UN on Internet crimes and children with Honorable Helen Clark the former PM of New Zealand. She was also part of team, who drafted IT Bill 2000.

Do read excerpts of our interview on online learning, use of coding and gaming and its impact on children here;

Schools are shut from last 7 months, but we have found alternative of classroom education – Online Education. A screen is now our school but is it really  a good alternative. The negative impact it would cause to children doesn’t justify it as a good alternative. In this reference, Mrs. Deepti Sutariya says, excessive use of technology in this scenario would give very harmful result in future.

According to various studies, spending so much time in front of screen can cause cancer and also effect our nervous system. Headache, irritation, body ache are the normal problems associated with excessive use of mobile phones and laptop. Young Minds are effected by it very early. This can hinder their mental as well as physical growth ,Mrs. Sutariya said.

Due to this pandemic, kids got phones at a very young age. They are unaware about it’s proper use. It’s found that other than studies, having own mobile is making children addicted of various internet games, social media sites and movies and web series. Rather than studies exploring social media seems more important to them and they are found wasting most of their time in it.

This gadget in children’s hand made them a game addicted. Recently we have seen the reaction of youths and young children on hearing the news of banning PUBG for nation’s security reason. But this was not the only game effecting children, there are many, and a new one FAU-JI is coming, She mentioned. Rather it’s PUBG or FAUJI or any other game impact on child is same. Games like these are making them more aggressive, irritable and frustrated. It could give very devastating results in future, she added.

Use of technology is the need of time as we can’t let go education of children but we can take some measures to limit it’s use. This will also limit demerits regarding it, Mrs. Deepti suggested. According to her, fix time hours should be decided for the use of screen both by parents and child. Parents should also limit the use of screen. She appealed families to at least decide one or two days of week as no phone day. On that day no member of family will be allowed to use phone or allowed for using it for just half an hour. This will have two fold effects. One, ill effects of technology could be controlled and second family can have more time with each other this can save family values among children. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also mentioned this kind of method in one of his ‘Man ki Bat’ as no digital day.

Mrs. Deepti Sutariya see the practice of excessive use of gadgets among people as a status symbol rather than a need of time. She believes that it is important to make children aware of right use of mobile phones and other gadgets so that it’s ill effects could not affect them. She emphasised that it’s our responsibility to safe our kids from bans of technology.

The use of technology is continuously increasing in our education system. In the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 also, coding is prescribed from 6th standard. Mrs. Deepti found it dangerous for students. She said, not everyone can do coding and it can also influence students towards hacking and other cyber crimes. She believes this policy should be implemented carefully.

Technology has its boons and bans both. It’s up-to us how we want to use it. In present time, it is important to safe our generation from the bans of technology, limit the use of screen and control overuse of mobiles and laptop.

(With Shreya)