VICTORIA KASANGA writes
PARENTS and guardians should ensure that children do not spend much time on phones as the trend distracts them from their education and causes loss of concentration, Copperbelt director of health Dr Robert Zulu has said.
Dr Zulu said the rising trend of children spending much of their time browsing on mobile phones was a major distraction, which parents should curtail.
Children have been hooked to whatsapp, Facebook, twitter and other social media platforms.
Dr Zulu has thus urged parents to ensure they limit the time children spend on their phones and watching movies on television in order for them to remain focused.
He was speaking in an interview in Ndola yesterday.
“The time they spend on mobile phones and television sets must be spent on doing their homework and attend to other school necessities,” he said.
He further cautioned children to concentrate on their studies rather than wasting time on mobile phones adding that education was a key to their success.
Some parents have observed that the rise in children delinquency could be as a result of influence of the social media to which the youth were hooked up.
Mary Kasonde of Pamozi Township in Ndola said the behaviour of some children was strange and reminiscent of the happenings in the Western world.
John Kampamba of Masala observed that cultural values were being eroded as a result of social media influence and called on fellow parents to put an end to this addiction.
So many children, he said, had become disobedient and would rather put headphones on and ignore issues that were happening around them.
Some parents said it would be sad if a generation of selfish children emerged because they would want to do things their way and only engage others when they were confronted with a challenge.
