Many parents are dealing with their children’s smartphone addiction but haven’t found a solution. Today, the Health Promotion Foundation launched a project that will help to address the issue by providing online training for families, to boost quality communication among family members.
This project is a result of cooperation between the Thai Health Promotion Foundation and the innovative company “Toolmorrow” to promote the potential of communication in families via online platforms.
The course was designed to let the families practice, in a group, for one hour a day for nine days.
Anyone who is interested can get more information at “Toolmorrow” Facebook page
Director of Healthy Child, Youth, and Family Promotion Section, Ms. Nattaya Boonpakdee said Thai children and teenagers spend 35 hours a week on their smartphones, more than anywhere else in the world, where the average is 16 hours a week.
The survey of 15,000 samples, aged 6 to 18, found that 61 percent of them at risk of addiction to online video games, which might be lead to other dangerous acts, such as gambling and violence.
Doctor Sirichai Hongsanguansri, a professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, said cutting the bond between a child and a smartphone can be done by generating the bond between the members of a family. They can do activities together, do what the children find are interesting, while schools also need to be responsible for arranging appropriate activities for students. (NNT)