Campaign and application to combat child addiction on mobile devices

A team of counselors and educational counselors in Gaza has launched a campaign to address the addiction of children to the excessive use of smart devices after they predicted the danger of negative repercussions on the behavior of children, amid great observation of children in schools and public behaviors developed during their follow-up with the participation of parents in continuous sessions.

The “Be With Me” campaign was launched through a safety system for educational guidance in mid-August to include social networking sites in cooperation with educators, guides and activists on social media sites from Palestine. The campaign was launched as an Arab campaign after a large number of Arab educational specialists expressed their admiration and volunteering. Aman was launched in early September.

Dr. Mohammed Ghazal, an academic and business consultant for Aman Educational Guidance System, emphasized the increasing demand for children to use technology, and the control of toy companies and harmful applications on the behavior of children through the excessive use of smart devices without follow-up, control and guidance.

Ghazal said, “We have progressed in a preliminary study of the idea and how to provide technical solutions in the field of parental follow-up through the link between the father and his sons via smart devices. Because the campaign and the app solve the problem and allow the child to invest time. ”

Ghazal pointed out that through their studies and surveys, they found that one third of the Arab Internet users in the category of children, and that 70% of children have smart phones independent of their parents, and family income and social level is not related to the possession of these devices children, and that the most uses of children focused on Gaming applications and visual content, and that 80% of parents are always concerned about their children’s use of smart phones.
He added that the campaign reached more than 15 countries in the Arab world, and focused on the various social networking sites, specifically whatsapp groups that were created with decision makers and influencers to consult on mechanisms to participate in the campaign programs to include the Arab world, and a plan was developed to address the addiction of smart devices and its impact on The child’s psychological, social, health and mental walks.

A security application that treats addiction
The security application includes the safe use of children for smart phones by following the parents behavior of their children and identify their sitting hours and determine their orientation by identifying the applications used by time and duration of use for each application, and can be downloaded from the smartphone stores Google Play and App Store.

The application also allows to connect the mobile device of the father to the mobile device of his son, to be able to determine the operating hours of the device for three hours in front of his son and then shut down the device after those hours, and the administrators of the application aims to enhance the value and appreciation of the time when the child was wasted time during excessive use, The father can follow, guide and guide his son.

For her part, professor of psychology from the University of Tlemcen in Algeria Tdlaoui Mariam pointed to the lack of Arab awareness of the seriousness of smart phones on children and not widely disseminated, which made parents minimize their negative impact compared to some of the secondary benefits they see in those phones, under the false beliefs where Parents consider that the child’s use of a smartphone demonstrates his intelligence, and that this is a requirement of the times.

According to Maryam, neuropsychologists confirmed that the child’s central nervous system is not fully mature until after the age of seven. “Social cognitive growth” on the role of play and social interaction to develop skills.

“I personally noticed that parents are happy at first when the child is using a smartphone, but they soon become aware of the delayed speech of their child and may seek to find the cause or leave it unresolved, and there are some parents pay attention to the damage of smartphones on their children after entering the preparatory class or School when their children cannot cope with their classmates and become aggressive. ”

She explained that the treatment of a child addicted to mobile devices must be through a large community awareness campaign on the dangers of the smartphone to grow and rely on the conviction of parents in essence, and aspires through the application to spread the thought and culture of dealing with smart devices, and that the Arab community to be the first to avoid the phenomenon Addiction to smartphones and their damage.

Fathers succeeded
Ahmed al-Sayyed, 40, from Gaza City, was able to follow the instructions published by the campaign on Facebook page after he faced many problems with his two children, Mo’men (6 years) and Mohammed (8 years), the most important of which is the loss of control over organizing their time in excessive use of the tablet. Which he brought to them four months ago and affected their focus at the beginning of the school year, which began in Gaza on August 25 last month.

“I was happy to see them playing in the machine and merging,” he said. “A week they started looking to play ball, sit with me and study as before.”

Mustafa al-Batran, 39, was like Mr. Sayyed.He managed to address his 10-year-old son Samir’s use of a mobile phone after he followed the instructions, and controlled his son’s phone via the app.He added that he began offering his advice to his friends to download the application and follow the instructions.

He said that the parents behind the addiction of their children on smart phones, where “we feel happy when we see our children use the devices and we consider it early intelligence of them.”

Source: aljazeera

أطلق فريق من الاستشاريين والمرشدين التربويين في غزة حملة لمواجهة إدمان الأطفال على الاستخدام المفرط للأجهزة الذكية بعدما تنبؤوا بخطورة الانعكاسات السلبية على سلوكيات الأطفال، وسط ملاحظة كبيرة للأطفال في المدارس والسلوكيات العامة التي استنبطوها خلال متابعتهم بمشاركة أولياء أمورهم ضمن جلسات مستمرة.

وأُطلقت حملة “كن معي” عبر منظومة أمان للإرشاد التربوي في منتصف أغسطس الماضي لتشتمل على مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي بالتعاون مع تربويين ومرشدين ونشطاء على مواقع التواصل من فلسطين، ثم انطلقت الحملة لتكون حملة عربية بعد أن أبدى عدد كبير من المختصين التربويين العرب إعجابهم وتطوعهم فيها لتكون داخل بلدانهم، ثم تم إطلاق تطبيق أمان في بداية سبتمبر الجاري.

ويتضمن تطبيق أمان الاستخدام الآمن للأبناء للهواتف الذكية من خلال متابعة الآباء سلوك أبنائهم والتعرف على ساعات جلوسهم وتحديد توجهاتهم عبر التعرف على التطبيقات المستخدمة حسب الوقت ومدة الاستخدام لكل تطبيق، ويمكن تحميله من متجري الهواتف الذكية غوغل بلاي وآب ستور.

كما يتيح التطبيق ربط جهاز الهاتف المحمول للأب بجهاز المحمول لابنه، ليتمكن من تحديد ساعات تشغيل الجهاز لثلاث ساعات أمام ابنه ثم يغلق الجهاز بعد تلك الساعات، ويهدف القائمون على التطبيق إلى تعزيز قيمة وتقدير الوقت عند الطفل بعد أن كان يضيع منه الوقت خلال الاستخدام المفرط، ويستطيع الأب متابعة وإرشاد وتوجيه ابنه.

الأكاديمي واستشاري أعمال منظومة أمان للإرشاد التربوي الدكتور محمد غزال أكد على ازدياد إقبال الأطفال على استخدام التكنولوجيا، وسيطرة شركات الألعاب والتطبيقات الضارة على سلوك الطفل من خلال الاستخدام المفرط للأجهزة الذكية دون متابعة ومراقبة وتوجيه.

ويقول غزال “تقدمنا في دراسة أولية للفكرة وطريقة توفير حلول تقنية في مجال المتابعة الأبوية من خلال الربط بين الأب وأبنائه عبر الأجهزة الذكية، وتم عرض الفكرة على مجموعة من الأكاديميين والتربويين من جامعات ومدارس مختلفة ثم المختصين في الدول العربية، وبالفعل لاقت قبولا شديدا من الجميع، لأن الحملة والتطبيق يحلان المشكلة ويتيحان استثمار الوقت عند الطفل”.

وأشار غزال إلى أنه من خلال دراساتهم واستطلاعاتهم توصلوا إلى أن ثلث مستخدمي الإنترنت عند العرب هم من فئة الأطفال، وأن 70% من الأطفال يمتلكون هواتف ذكية مستقلة عن ذويهم، ولا علاقة لدخل الأسرة ومستواها الاجتماعي بامتلاك الأطفال تلك الأجهزة، وأن أكثر استخدامات الأطفال تركزت على تطبيقات الألعاب والمحتوى المرئي، وأن 80% من الآباء يشعرون بالقلق الدائم من استخدام أطفالهم الهواتف الذكية.

ويضيف أن الحملة وصلت إلى أكثر من 15 دولة في الوطن العربي، وتم التركيز على مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي المختلفة وتحديدا مجموعات الواتساب التي تم إنشاؤها مع صناع القرار والمؤثرين للتشاور بشأن آليات التشارك في برامج الحملة لتشمل الوطن العربي، وتم وضع خطة لمعالجة إدمان الأجهزة الذكية وتأثيره على مناحي حياة الطفل النفسية والاجتماعية والصحية والعقلية.