Draft policy on ‘Responsible Digital Use Among Students’ sets goals for parents, schools

The draft ‘Responsible Digital Use Among Students’ policy, released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday, recommended that parents create structured routines with clear screen time rules and prioritize privacy, security and open conversations with children about digital well-being.

Schools have been recommended to incorporate digital wellbeing and social media literacy into their curriculum, along with implementing specific programs for digital detox and identifying mental health red flags early on.

The draft policy has been prepared based on discussions with stakeholders, in collaboration with the Karnataka State Mental Health Authority, NIMHANS and the Department of School Education. It also recommended “a set of preventive, promotional and responsive strategies for all schools to implement.”

“Parents should facilitate more peer interaction and conversation without screens, invite friends for offline play, encourage role playing, group reading, or drama at home, and model face-to-face communication,” the draft said.

The Karnataka government has announced that it will introduce a policy that will restrict the use of social media by children aged 16 and below.

The draft policy aims to “create a safe, stable and psychologically healthy digital environment for students.”

It is advocated to mark digital free zones where no family member uses technology, such as the bedroom, dining table, kitchen, bathroom and motor vehicle, and for parents, “Parents should define screen time limits according to age, mandatory screen-free time should be defined during meal, sleep hours and study periods, and all screens should be turned off 1 hour before technology bedtime.” recommendation was made. “Decide on a digital fasting time when no family member uses any device,” the draft said.

The draft policy says it is the responsibility of schools: “Schools should include digital wellbeing and social media literacy in life skills, values ​​education and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) curricula. Age-appropriate lessons on responsible digital behaviour, privacy, online safety and screen time balance should be taught regularly.”