Online classes: '70% kids addicted to mobiles'

Online classes that became the new normal during the pandemic have had unintended consequences on kids, with a new report flagging severe addiction among students to gadgets.

A state-wide study conducted by the Karnataka Child Rights Trust Observatory (KCRO) on children during the pandemic found that a whopping 70% of kids are addicted to mobile-phones for gaming, songs, films and chatting.

The report, which was released on Friday, sought immediate counselling for such kids, even as it highlighted the stark digital divide as many families couldn’t afford smartphones for their children.

The KCRO, a network of Child Rights NGOs, visited 20 districts and interacted with hundreds of stakeholders to understand the condition of kids — their health, nutrition and education — during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the report, only 30% of kids had facilities to access online classes while 70% of them were addicted to mobiles for accessing games, films, songs, chatting etc. “These children require counselling at the earliest to wean them out of this,” the report said.

“The kids from 1st standard to 4th standard missed out on the schooling experience and forgotten what they had learnt in the past.” The report also pointed out that many families could not afford to buy smartphones for online classes, which meant that such kids missed classes and ended up working.

“In many districts, parents could not afford smartphones for every kid. Due to this, many stayed away from studying,” a KCRO member said.

“Due to the closure of schools, a significant number of children were engaged in labour, mostly in agriculture, petty shops and cottage industries,” according to the report. “A few other families relied on free ration distributed by NGOs or by borrowing from the rich.”

Another important finding by the study was the rise in the number of child marriages.

“The adolescent focus groups said that there has been a clear rise in the number of child marriages in the districts of Bagalkot, Mandya, Kalaburagi, Bengaluru Rural and Chikkaballapura due to Covid-19 fear,” the report stated.