Principals, educationists, and school administrators of various schools in Bengaluru exuded a keen interest at the Principal Seminar 2025 on “Creating safe online spaces: A call to action for educators” organized by Deccan Herald Newspaper in Education (DHiE) with Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru, as associate sponsor.While K.N. Yashavantha Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Cyber Crime Division, CID addressed the issue of cybercrime, Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma, Professor of Clinical Psychology and Head of SHUT (Service for Healthy Use of Technology) Clinic at NIMHANS addressed the issue of digital addiction.At the outset, he propounded the golden rule that “If you won’t say it to someone publicly, don’t say it online. Using AI technology, you can create a face that does not exist in the real world and therefore when you get a friend request, you cannot ensure if it is real or fake.”Kumar said the rising incidents of digital safety issues in schools stem from the fact that close to 95 percent of teens have access to smartphones who spend over five hours daily online and therefore schools need to adopt creative strategies.“We are giving away our digital identity when we give our name, email, phone and address to enter into a ‘lucky dip’ contest. The data thus collected is sold to websites at a price for each address.You are your own police officer without uniform and each teacher is a psychologist and criminologist as he or she can detect whether an assignment has been done using ChatGPT using her own strength and knowledge of her students,” he said.On online fraud, he said there is no concept of digital arrest or online interrogation as there is an elaborate procedure to make an arrest for a cognizable offence.Kumar said the dependence on technology has reduced critical thinking besides AI may generate misinformation. As a solution there is a need for clear AI policies, responsible usage of AI, implementation of AI direction tools and training of teachers.He said cyberbullying may lead to emotional distress affecting academic performance and mental health issues. This can be resolved by a clear reporting mechanism, train staff on digital evidence collection and partner with parents for monitoring.Similarly, he said, the rise of online gaming has a dopamine effect and poor academic performance. This can be resolved by safe gaming guidelines, education about healthy habits and parental control.Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma said that according to a survey the screen time by ages for kids from 0 to 2 years (49 minutes), 2 to 4 years (2 to 2.5 hours), 5 to 8 years (over 3 hours a day). Teens and adults spent 7.5 hours a day. The average screen time for adults is 11 hours a day.He said the reasons associated with technology overuse include ease of interaction; peer pressure; sense of autonomy that comes from anonymity and instant gratification.He suggested the following digital hygiene regime: frequent break; schedule 3 meals a day; break after 45 minutes of headphone use, bring indoor physical activities; and use apps for monitoring daily usage to ensure concentration and efficiency.He also suggested 7 Es to help manage tech use: ‘Engage’ children actively in healthy, novel offline activities; ‘Encourage’ children to build their creative skills and creative thinking; ‘Educate’ children about the ill effects of excessive screen time, social media, gaming addiction and cyberbullying; ‘Emphasize the importance of family time and social relationship; ‘Ensure’ supervision of digital tech use by children and ‘Empower’ by setting strict limits on use of gadgets and effective use of digital time..Dr. Sharma suggested a watch over children using technology with a 5 Cs formula: ‘Craving’, exercise caution if the child uses technology for long hours; losing ‘Control’ such as watching back-to-back episodes or 120 minutes of screen time; ‘Coping’ a reason for excessive use of technology due to anxiety or depression and ‘Compulsion’ of nomophobia (No Mobile Fear) caused by children not allowed to use phone resulting in withdrawal symptoms and ‘Consequences’ for poor performance in academic can sometimes result in children taking to gadgets.Children should spend at least 40 minutes a day with parents, as many families do not spend quality time together even as family times become boring because over time adults have lost the skill of conversation.While recreational use of gadgets is beneficial, problems arise when it becomes recurring and addictive. Taking more than four selfies a day for no reason can be a sign of technology addiction, he added.The digital version of the Deccan Herald in Education (DHiE) website was formally launched during the seminar.Dr. Mabel Vasnaik, HOD & Consultant-Emergency Medicine, Manipal Hospital, Bengaluru, with her team demonstrated cardiopulmonary resuscitation for the benefit of the participating educationists. Several principals practiced CPR with the use of mannequins provided by the hospital..QUOTES: Seminars like this are a good initiative and all stakeholders—schools, students, teachers, and parents—should be a part of such initiatives.S. Jayapriya, Principal, JGI, The Sports School, Kanakapura.Such seminars are essential as these problems are very common. We became aware of a lot of issues relating to cybercrime and digital addiction.Kanakavalli Ramachandra, Academic Head, Rotary Bangalore Vidyalaya, Kengeri The session was really good, elaborate in the little time that was given. I strongly believe we should make CPR mandatory.Anupama Ramachandra, Principal, Delhi Public School, Electronic City.New technology has new benefits and new trends. Technology should be used for constructive purposes.K.N. Yashavantha Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police The agenda of the session was very apt. More sessions like this is the need of the hour so that teachers can be trained to handle complex issues of mental health and cyber crimes.Vidya Guruprasad, Principal, Ryan International School, Kundalahalli We have collected all the necessary information and are now preparing a questionnaire for the students. The second session was informative. Initially, we only knew the outlines, but now we have gained an in-depth understanding.Vijayalakshmi R, East West Group of Schools This was a useful seminar for principals and educationists. Our school has been associated with DHiE for the past 25 years and are using the newspaper as a tool to gain knowledge and vocabulary.Gangambika Principal and Trustee, Blossom School, Kanakapura
