The Government has ruled out introducing a minimum age for children to use digital devices for now, with the Women and Child Affairs Ministry saying it will instead focus on changing children’s screen-use behaviour through parental education.
Speaking to The Daily Morning, Ministry Secretary Tharangani Wickramasinghe said the Government had identified parental guidance as a more effective way of influencing children than imposing minimum age restrictions.
“We currently have no plans to introduce a minimum age. Even in some countries where this has been introduced, the data show that it has remained only on paper. Hence, our focus is to bring about a behavioural change by educating parents. We expect to explore further how we can make screen users use their screen time in a better way,” she said.
She said the Government also wanted to encourage children to use digital devices for productive purposes, noting that artificial intelligence (AI) could have positive applications.
“For instance, there are good aspects of artificial intelligence as well. So, what we aim to do is guide children to use screens for good purposes. There is a programme called Senehe Thataka to inform and educate parents and encourage better parental care to guide children towards better screen use. Actually, it is not the child but the parent that we are mainly focusing on. If a behavioural change happens in the parent, the child also tends to change,” Wickramasinghe said.
She added that the Ministry had encountered children spending more than 15 hours a day on screens during its programmes, but said parents had changed their approach after being made aware that such levels of screen use were inappropriate.
However, 64% of children spend more than 30 minutes a day on screens, according to a recent survey conducted by the Health Promotion Bureau in collaboration with the University of Colombo and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The survey findings indicate that excessive screen use can affect children’s brain development, language and social skills, physical activity and overall health.
The Government had previously held discussions with the Digital Economy Ministry on several occasions regarding the introduction of a minimum age for children to use digital devices, identifying it as an international best practice.