While scrolling Twitter I found this intriguing tweet from Dr. Sumitra Misra, an IAS,
where she shared a leave application from a subordinate requesting child care leave for
her daughter who is in 11th standard.Till now we had examples of women asking for
maternity leave to take care of their new born babies, but social media is the new
challenge to both motherhood and to women who want to pursue their career. In the letter the mother
cited that she is
requesting leave for her
daughter saying, 'my
daughter is pursuing
11th standard in
science stream. She is
wasting more time on
social media and
nobody is at home to
take care of her.' Sounds strange, doesn't it?
In yet another case, a woman resigned from job because her child attempted suicide
after getting deeply engrossed in the of world social media.
This reveals a harsh reality of the digital age where the prevalence of social media and
its excessive and uncontrolled use are having some unimaginable consequences.
Women are forced to take leave or leave job altogether, in order to protect and control
their child's behaviour online. In Indian society mothers are traditionally burdened
with bringing up children and now they also bear the brunt of the harmful effects of
online platforms on their children and responsibility to protect them.
These unimaginable issues are induced by the phenomenon of excessive use of digital
devices by children, which not only harm children but also have indirect negative
consequences for women, especially working women. Women have been negatively
affected by most technological development throughout history rather than being
benefited. This information age is another such technological advancement taking a
toll on the mental health of women. This has an indirect impact on the women's
careers and their participation in the economy. Hence, these issues' effects will be felt
in the economic development of the country in the longer run.
But does the onus only lie on mothers?
Dr Sumitra, said, 'unchecked social media use is as bad as drug'. This addiction to
social media is wreaking havoc on not only the mental health of a child,
compromising their co-curricular activities and studies, but also, indirectly increasing
the responsibility of parents, particularly of mothers.
Digital parenting is a challenge which is unique to this generation of parents where
they are facing some unknown problems and issues. There is no one who can actually
tell parents of this generation how to manage their kids and ensure their safety online
It is ironical that social media platforms allow children of age 13 years or above to
sign up to their platforms without having adequate safeguards to protect them from
online harms generated on their platforms and dangerous algorithms which boost the
content without assessing whether the content is harmful for children. These social
media platforms are by design not built to ensure children's online safety and always
prioritise profits over ethics and time and again have failed to protect children from
online harms which is impacting them psychologically, mentally and physically.
For instance, Instagram, one of the most popular platforms among the younger generation, has meagre parental control features and has been criticised for nudging users to use platforms for longer time and hosting inappropriate content giving rise to many issues like eating disorder, cyber frauds, cyberbullying, body image issues, circulation of child sexual abuse material online, availability of drugs and other harmful content.
Social Media Companies Must Take Responsibility
Digital parenting is a difficult task but we must remember that the internet and social media have emerged as strong socialisation force and without a doubt have strong influence on the younger generation's minds. For parents, it is important to be part of the formative years of their child but big techs can not shed their responsibility because the role they play in making psychological and behavioural changes is huge. Parents cannot be solely held responsible for extreme steps taken by the children. Instagram and Snapchat like Twitter must set limits for the number of stories one can see at one go.They must set on reminder by default for children and teenagers. Policymakers must take this issue seriously as this is going to have some larger consequences for society as a whole.It is important to understand the larger consequences of social media and other online platforms and direct and indirect impact on the overall health of not only children but of mothers also. It is important to assess the overall impact on working women and the disproportionate burden they have to bear for this new evolving space in longer run.
