Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/906955
10 News AN old African proverb would have it that, "It takes a village to raise a child". It speaks to the re- ality that a child requires a varied exposure to life in order to take in its full richness and come to a complete-as-possible understand- ing about what awaits them out there, in the wider world, once the time comes for them to take their initial steps outside the homestead to interact with their peers and su- periors. The nugget-wisdom of the prov- erb would have it that the collec- tive experience of the 'village el- ders' is ultimately what will help the child along, and if everyone contributes to the kid's develop- ment, it becomes something of a "more, the merrier" scenario. Now, one can see how this would apply when it comes to abstract values a community may wish to pass on... even, perhaps, certain practical tips that would turn out to be handy despite the contextual circumstances the kid may have popped up in. But what happens when the tech- nology which rings the child's ex- istence – and that of its parents, too – is too recent to have been processed and mashed together into habits by said 'village'? To wit: how should parents, teachers, and the kids themselves be expected to deal with the onslaught of inter- net-enhanced digital technology, whose very nature is by definition hard to trap and control (as any high-end creative content provider would tell you if you bring up the pesky matter of online piracy and illegal downloads)? Especially giv- en how we haven't even grasped its full implications ourselves. Espe- cially given that the terrain keeps shifting with each new ground- breaking gadget, with each new system-rearranging 'upgrade'... No easy solutions While the fretting about of just how much of a toxic influence technology can have on children is nothing new – worries over televi- sion usage have spilled into wor- ries about video games, and so on and so forth, in the past – the add- ed layers of both interactivity and pedagogical necessity have served to complicate matters further in this day and age. The ease of access to a blinding array of media will of course make parents jittery by proxy, but the very same facility can also serve as a handy teaching tool – or at least, as a way to enhance already-in- place educational mechanisms – as has, in fact, been put into action in a very clear way once the Ministry of Education decided to put digital tablets in the hands of school kids. Given this scenario, we felt it best to try to get a long-view on the matter, and so we spoke to a cou- ple of academics with an interest in the matter and some clear ideas about what the healthiest way for- ward should be; for parents, teach- ers as well as the kids themselves. maltatoday SUNDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2017 DO'S AND DONT'S • Children younger than 18 months should avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting • Children under two years of age learn best from real-world experiences and interactions • Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they are watching • For children aged 2 to 5 years, screen use should be limited to 1 hour per day of high-quality programmes Source: American Pediatric Association The children of the web