The heart of a parent is always towards the benefit of the child. This is almost always the case, then the evolution of smartphones happened.
Photo Credit: Ogilvy & Mather China
Truth be told, when I first heard of the Philippine Information Agency’s (PIA) #CyberReadi campaign, my first thought was, “What if the parents themselves are struggling with gaming disorder?” In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) has officially recognized “gaming disorder” as a diagnosable condition. For sure, no parent is a saint, so we are as susceptible to addiction as our next door neighbor.
As parents, we have to make a resolve to be intentional in raising our children. Keeping our priorities in check, staying accountable, and openness in being called out are a few of our non-negotiables. It is when we are in that healthy spot that we are able to talk authority over our children’s screen use. First off, it will be hard for our children to take us seriously on keeping their screen time in check, if we remind them while we ourselves are glued to our phones.
Our Pisay scholar barely has time to accommodate gaming these days because of his insane school requirements. But our resolve is to a game night date every week. For each of our sanity, really, and not just for him. If we don’t watch it, social media has the ability to suck the life out of you.
In light of the put off/put on philosophy, as with any kind of addiction that needs replacing to unlearn and correct, we should make sure to give our kids something else to do to replace the usual time they spend on their smartphones. It can be painting, reading, family game night (board games), some of which would have you spend time learning their every changing interests and concerns. This is especially true if you happen to have a teenager like we do.
As a family, we are totally with PIA as it takes huge strides to safeguard the young people against the dangers in the online world by aggressively pushing for the promotion of its nationwide cyber wellness campaign.
CORE VALUES DESCRIPTION
Responsibility – We should think first and be responsible for what we post online.
Empathy – We should b e respectful and thoughtful of how our online interactions may affect others.
Authenticity – We should be sincere in our online interactions and prepared to stand by what we post.
Discernment – We should critically evaluate the online information before acting on it.
Integrity – We should do the right thing, stand up for what is right and speak up against negative online behaviour.
It is also wise to be mindful in what we post on social media. While it is understandable to be thrilled over life events and celebrations, we also need to consider the timing of your posting. Make sure that you are back from your vacation. Otherwise, it might just be the go signal thieves are waiting for to prey on your home.
A dedicated webpage for the cyber wellness campaign is also in the works. PIA regional and provincial offices are rolling out their respective activities to further spread the cyberREADI advocacy.
H.E. Kung Phoak, Deputy Secretary-General for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community stressed that the Cyber-Wellness campaign is a timely project since digital media has increasingly become the primary source of information among ASEAN people. He says: “There is a need to build information resiliency among the youth and protect them from the risk of getting misled by fake news and misinformation. With enhanced media and information literacy, the youth is expected to become smart consumers and responsible producers of online information. Through this project, we hope young people would better understand, inquire, create, communicate and think critically while digitally engaged”.
Visit CyberReadiPH on Facebook for more information.
