Rehab for your child’s internet addiction

New Delhi: In a bid to ensure that the kids stay away from the Internet and social media, a Delhi-based NGO has come up with an “internet de-addiction centre”. Centre for Children in Internet and Technology Distress, is a place where they do counselling on the harmful effects of being online for long hours. They also encourage kids to play indoor and outdoor games such as hopscotch and seven stones, read books, practice yoga, and participate in story-telling sessions.

“The idea is to let the children discover the joys of traditional games and physical interactions,” said Rahul Verma, founder of Uday Foundation. The Centre — located in south Delhi’s Sarvodaya Enclave — was started three weeks ago by the Uday Foundation, an NGO. It has a counselling room, an activity-cum-play- room and a library. The walls are adorned with black-and-white photos of children playing outdoors and posters warning children of the ill-effects of internet addiction and safe usage of social media such as ‘Life was much easier when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits’.

Around 60 children are undergoing de-addiction at the centre. “While younger children are hooked to online games, older ones are addicted to Facebook and WhatsApp. We try to help them make emotional connections in the real world,” Tara, a counsellor was quoted as saying by an English daily. 

Delhi’s centre is the second in the country after the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans) started a de-addiction clinic in Bangalore called Shut (Service for Healthy Use of Technology)  this April.

“We had a case where a child was so addicted to online games that he lost all interest in studies, failed and finally dropped out of school. Internet addiction, if untreated, can have disastrous consequences. There is a need for a mass awareness programmes about judicious use of technology,” said Manoj Kumar Sharma, associate professor at Nimhans.