Bengaluru: In a draft policy for responsible digital use among students released by the Government of Karnataka on Monday, it has suggested each school to frame and enforce a Digital Use Policy in addition to constituting a Digital Wellness Committee including principal or vice principal, counsellor or mental health professional, designated teachers, parent representative, student representative and cyber crime police officer.
This policy has been drafted involving various departments including Health and Family Welfare, National Institute of Mental Health and Sciences (NIMHANS), department of education along with 60 professionals from education institutions and university representatives, parent representatives and cyber crime department.
Under the Digital Use Policy which has to be mandatorily implemented in the schools, the schools have to come up with protocols for cyberbullying or digital misconduct, teacher roles in moderating digital exposure, limit recreational screen time to not more than 1 hour per day outside of schoolwork, counselling students on safe digital use, national digital health mission can be created to monitor and provide framework for healthy use of technology and encourage schools to adopt traditional methods of communication instead of direct WhatsApp contact with students, and implement a 'Diary system' for communication.
At the same time, under the digital wellness committee, the schools are advised to collaborate with digital technology and media industries for ethical content development, and a certified age limit for digital media use. Another important policy is managing popup policies along with developers may lead to multiple inappropriate sites and exposure to harmful content. Developing age-appropriate phones/devices for children and OS update for device as they grow older and developing a special 'Child plan' for phones with audio-only phones, and stopping data use by 7 PM.
Furthermore, schools are expected to maintain a confidential log of referrals to the counsellor and ensure that cases of cyberbullying or online harm are addressed with urgency and care. At the same time, students are encouraged to report any threatening or suspicious online behaviour to a trusted adult or school counsellor. Create awareness among children to reach out to Tele Manas -14416 for counselling support.
This draft policy has not limited to schools, but it has embedded Teachers Training Programme for digital detox. Training teachers will help identify red flags of tech overuse among students. Under this, the training for teachers can be organised by schools inviting experts from NIMHANS.
Some suggestions in the policy include practical tools and management techniques for promoting digital hygiene, screentime balance, and offline engagement within the classroom setting. Teachers must be trained to give a physical education period every day. Using technology in the classroom in an innovative way - a fluid classroom - teaching can be changed with more community visits and exposure. Besides, classrooms must be designed in ways to foster curiosity and engagement through the means of healthy technology use and the gamification of teaching.
Furthermore, parents are advised to facilitate more peer interactions and conversations without screens among children and their friends via offline play, group reading etc. Parents are also suggested to be emotionally available for children during family time. Educate parents to talk regularly about who their children interact with online, what apps or platforms they use, the importance of not sharing photos and other important details.