Social Media Addiction: Social media is affecting children, what does the survey of local circles say?

New Delhi: One in two parents in urban areas in India say that their children are addicted to social media, OTT and online gaming platforms. Due to this his/her nature is getting affected. They are getting aggressive. There seems to be a lack of patience among them. Not only this, their lifestyle is becoming dull. In the Local Circles survey, 47% of urban Indian parents say that their children spend an average of 3 hours or more every day in activities like social media, video/OTT and online games. Most of these people believe that their children Addicted to social media, videos or online gaming etc. 66% want data protection laws to ensure that parental controls are made mandatory for children under 18 when they engage with social media, OTT/video and online gaming platforms. Parental consent should be sought. Many want the government to make parental consent mandatory through Aadhaar authentication if children under 18 join such platforms.

1. On an average, 47% of parents say that their children aged 9-17 spend an average of three hours or more every day on social media, video/OTT and online games.

• 10% of parents said that their children at this age spent more than 6 hours on the Internet.
• 37% people said that they spent 3-6 hours. 39% people said spent 1-3 hours.
• 9% said they spent up to an hour.
• 5% said that their children are hardly spending time on social media, videos/OTT and online games.
• (13,285 people responded to the survey)

2. 66% of the parents surveyed want that there should be parental control on the use of social media for children under 18 years of age.

• 66% said yes, parental consent is necessary.
• 20% said- No, the minimum age to use social media without consent should be 15 years.
• 4% of respondents said the minimum age for using social media without consent should be maintained at 13 years.
• 10% of the respondents did not give a clear response.
• (13,174 parents responded)