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TUESDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2013 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 inside Fasting at least twice CAMPUS a week seen as • Indian space scientist gives away Sastra Alzheimer’s hedge Pratibha awards P | 4 P | 7 RECIPE CONTEST • Send in your best recipe and win a dinner voucher P | 6 FILM How safe Ender’s Game • battles to US box office win are kids P | 8-9 FOOD on the • How to make the perfect roasted pumpkin seeds internet P | 11 TECHNOLOGY • Sony’s PlayStation4: Five new things we’ve learned P | 12 Learn Arabic • Learn commonly In many families there is a constant battle between demands used Arabic words and their meanings for privacy and safety on the internet. Parents share the lessons they have learned and the techniques they use. P | 13 2 PLUS | TUESDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2013 COVER STORY Children and the internet A parent’s If we spend ou can’t blame British chef hours on and TV personality Jamie Oliver for being worried. As Facebook and Ythe father of Poppy, 11, Daisy, guide 10, Petal, four, and Buddy, three, he really Pinterest - in needs some long-term tech ground rules full view of our in his house. So he announced last week help that there is often a hypocritical ele- periods of time, brain plasticity and crea- that he has banned his eldest daughters ment to all this for modern parents. Oliver tivity; b) intellectual issues about where children - how from using a mobile phone or any kind of announced the birth of both of his younger information comes from and the ability to can we expect social media. children to his 3.6 million Twitter follow- think independently; and c) social media “I found out my two eldest girls had set ers. If we spend hours on Facebook and and ideas about empathy, friendship, bul- them not to up Instagram accounts in secret, which I Pinterest - in full view of our children - lying, communication and relationships.” go on Moshi wasn’t happy about and soon put a stop to,” how can we expect them not to go on Moshi She says that Lily worries a lot for her he said. “Poppy is the only girl in her class Monsters, Club Penguin, Friv or Minecraft little sister and feels there has been a sea Monsters, Club without a mobile. It may sound harsh, but as soon as they can wield a mouse? change in internet use and access in the Penguin, Friv I do worry about the bullying that can go Sara Bran is from north London and last few years: “When Lily was seven, there on with these sites.” writes on creativity and parenting. She has was one central computer in our house that or Minecraft as Oliver’s fears are certainly exacerbated two daughters, Mia, seven, and Lily, 17. “I we all used. Now smartphones mean that soon as they by his celebrity status. But they are shared don’t think ‘the internet’ is taught well in all of us are in our own private worlds, hav- by many parents who, faced with mixed school,” she said. “It is only mentioned to ing private relationships with the internet can wield a messages about the dangers and benefits of children in the context of safety and dan- and social media. At 17, she doesn’t consider mouse? technology, choose simply to ban whatever ger. It needs to be broken down into a) herself a digital native, but her younger they can for as long as they can. It doesn’t health issues - eyesight, sitting still for long sister at seven is completely immersed.” PLUS | TUESDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2013 3 Stay-at-home dad Mark Bryce, who intervene sensibly, technology has so a nine-year-old daughter and 14-year- blogs at sonnyandluca.co.uk, is from much to offer, argues Heather Ticheli, old stepson, says this is perhaps the Manchester. His two boys are three London-based home educator and cam- hottest topic for parents: “Many par- and four, so their internet use is rare paigner for Mothers At Home Matter. ents take a stepped approach. Kids and supervised but he already wor- She has two boys aged four and eight first get a phone with very few credits ries: “We tend to stick with Cbeebies and sees technology as a life-saver: “I that they can only use to call home in [children’s website run by the BBC] wouldn’t want to home educate with- emergencies, then they get one with but when we’ve occasionally used other out screens. Particularly because tech Parents are fighting back more credits that they can use to call a sites, particularly YouTube, it’s fright- opens up the world to my dyslexic son by personally policing close circle of family and friends, then ening how quickly they can stumble in a way that books just can’t.” their children’s use — they’re allowed to use their own allow- across other material just by clicking This generation of parents also real- ance or earnings to add credit to use on links. Once I took a phone call and ises that it’s likely that the ability to the only way you can it with more people. A big concern is within a few minutes they were watch- programme, use code, vlog and blog is really know what’s going that the phone makes them a target ing something quite violent - and that as essential to the current cohort of on. With older children, for mugging by other kids.” was only a couple of clicks away from children as a degree was in times gone She adds: “I’m most concerned about the cartoon I’d left them viewing.” by. The excitement about Raspberry Pi, you need to be up close appropriate use of social media. It’s so The arguments against are well- the £30 credit-card-size mini PC that and personal with their easy when you’re just learning how rehearsed. A recent report for Public plugs into a TV and keyboard -”unlock- online use. to use social media to overshare, say Health England, part of the British ing a new generation of programmers” something that you shouldn’t, even government’s Department of Health, - is built on this feeling. take a picture and send it to a boy- concluded that “children who spend “There are so many amazing apps, friend and girlfriend that gets shared more time on computers, watching from phonics and maths to video friends with them on Facebook. Yes, I with others. They don’t comprehend TV and playing video games tend to blogging and stop-motion animation,” know my comments get deleted. And the repercussions or foresee the issues experience higher levels of emotional Ticheli adds. “We watch documentaries I am not allowed to ‘like’ statuses on that might develop. I think every par- distress, anxiety and depression”. and videos on YouTube. We can use Facebook. But at least they know I ent also worries that their child might Then there’s the sedentary effect: my smartphone to find the answers to know what they are up to.” be the one bullying or not being nice to more than 70 percent of young people the barrage of random questions my Her children all had phones from others online. Any way you can have do not undertake the recommended children think of while we are stuck the age of 10, but “for use in emergen- those conversations are good. The one hour of physical activity a day. in traffic on the bus.” cies - not smartphones”. She adds: “I earlier, the better.” Perhaps the worst Earlier this year the Public Health Parents are fighting back by per- am not too scared about my children thing for this generation of busy and Sciences Unit in Glasgow found a cor- sonally policing their children’s use being bullied online, we have that con- over-worked parents, often tech over- relation between viewing television for — the only way you can really know versation a lot and are very open about users themselves, is that this is one longer than three hours a day (from what’s going on. With older children, it and they would talk to me if this more thing drive us all apart. age five) and “conduct disorder”. you need to be up close and personal happened. “I worry that screen time will The safety issue is an equal con- with their online use, says Tanya “But we heard of an incident where become the norm rather than one of a cern. Last month Peter Davies, chief Barrow, who writes the award-win- a friend had added a young lad on variety of activities, and also the lack of executive of the Child Exploitation and ning blog Mummy Barrow. She lives Facebook and had been chatting to exercise that will result from it,” Mark Online Protection Centre (Ceops), said in Hampshire, on England’s southern him for a few months. Just chatting, Bryce said. “Most of all though I worry that “half of all child sexual exploita- coast, with two girls aged 14 and 19 and nothing sinister. But it transpired he that it will become something that tion takes place on social networks. an 18-year-old son. was not a young lad and had been bid- comes between them and me as they Facebook is a major one, but not the “There should be supervision until ing time and gaining her trust, look- grow older. I know it’s only natural for only one”.