IN DETAIL: TECHNOLOGY
Gateway to Internet Safety Now more than ever, kids are spending bulk of their time online. Here’s why good tech education is the best guarantee for their safety. – By John Huen
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he ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has left an indelible mark on the way we work, learn and entertain ourselves. The existing trend of online platforms displacing face-to-face interactions has only been exacerbated by countermeasures such as full lockdowns and restrictions on public gatherings. In other words, a growing proportion of our time is spent on video streaming services and video chat platforms as companies and schools adapt to this new normal, with the likes of Zoom, Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams witnessing an exponential increase in web traffic. With much of the population spending more time at home, gaming and social media screen time has skyrocketed – particularly among the younger generation. Starved of social activities and interaction, kids and teens are staving off boredom by staying connected with their friends, streaming or watching games on Twitch, chatting on Discord and flocking to Roblox – a free multiplayer gaming platform populated by user-generated games and content complete with its own purchasable in-game currency.
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To get a sense of Roblox’s surging popularity, the Silicon Valley-based company clocked up an eyewatering 3 billion hours of use in July alone, growing from 115 million active users in February to 164 million in August. Naturally, social media use has seen a similar trend. TikTok experienced a significant rise in active users numbering well in the millions and Facebook’s umbrella of apps including Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp also reported a dramatic spike in activity – no surprise given its enclosed, interlocking network of communication tools and easily shareable content.
The dangers of social media The more time kids spend flicking between apps on an endless pursuit of self-gratification and approval, the higher the probability of becoming susceptible to its pitfalls. Since the advent of Facebook as a monetisable platform that has grown to become the preferred medium for advertisers and political lobbyists, social media has become a wholly different beast.
