When kids are handed over their first phones, they are not informed about the privacy protection instructions. As per experts, the most nascent stage to give cellphones to kids is when they are in middle school when they are most vulnerable to using smartphones extensively.
In New York, however, a new syllabus has been offered at a number of schools that teaches kids to protect their privacy to ensure their safety. Teachers hope to teach children the lesson that misusing or overusing devices can lead to oversharing of information which can be harmful to them.
According to studies, over 50 percent children feel that they are addicted to mobile phones and cannot get themselves of it any time of the day. Either they are busy messaging people, sharing pictures or other information or using other social media platforms. Even gaming on phones is very common among kids and when they need to share their details to compete with other players, a lot of the information can be passed on that should remain confidential.
One of the students’ parents say that they trust their child to use her own discretion with the phone and are sure she would be careful as they have warned her about being cautious while sharing any personal information with people.
Before graduating from this programme the kids were made to do home assignments like turning off the phones for one weekend, downloading the Moments app that helps them track how much time they spend on the devices and the results by kids were shocking.