Netizen Toddlers – How Does That Sound?
Two years back when I saw my 9 years old neighbor chatting away on MSN, I was shocked. She also had a profile on Orkut! I didn’t know whether to complaint to her mother or just sigh and think that technology has grown seemingly. I had no clue whether about computers. Well that was then, now, my neighbor has quit using Orkut and is highly active now on Facebook and wondering what’s Twitter!
It no longer surprises me when I see kids online and doing much more stuff than I do, thanks to learning internet is a part of their school curriculum. Recently we wrote about Canadian kids being net savvy at the age of 7! There was a comparison with the Indian kids and their adaptation on the internet.
Here is a study done in India that says 49 per cent of the kids aged 7-14 years have used a computer in the past one month, while 15 per cent have surfed the Internet. In 2008, it was just 10 per cent. 52 per cent of the kids in the age group of 7-14 years who surf the Internet listed playing online games as their favourite activity!
Being socially active in the online domain, 19 per cent of the kids who surf the Internet claim to have made a friend on the Internet whom they have never met. These figures were shared by Benjamin Grubbs, Regional Director, interactive, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia Inc.
Afaqs reports that Turner Entertainment has taken initiatives such as Game Creator and Toon Creator an innovative online platform powered by CN and Hewlett Packard that invites kids to create their own toons. Grubbs informs that www.cartoonnetwork.com gets more than 8.5 million page views per month, with 6,61,000 unique users. Pogo’s website, www.pogo.tv, gets more than 8,31,000 page views per month, with 88,000 unique users.
Whereas other Kid’ s channel Nick’s latest initiative, Let’s Just Play, aimed at imbibing ‘active play’ in the lifestyle of kids, allows kids to play wherever they are and pledge their participation to the movement by logging on to the website, www.nickindia.com. The channel has also asked the kids to send in their pictures and videos of them playing, a few of which will be put on air. Nina Elavia Jaipuria, General Manager and senior Vice-President, Nick India, shares that Nick’s website, with six lakh page views, has about 72,000 unique visitors. Average time spent on the website by a kid is about 12 minutes.
When it comes to Walt Disney, Disney regularly promotes one or the other of its iconic characters heavily through the website. To promote a new season of Hannah Montana, it created a microsite where kids could come and give a new look to their pop star icon. According to Venugopal Iyengar, associate director, marketing, Walt Disney Television International India, the overall page views of www.disney.in, www.hungamatv.com and www.jetixtv.in stand at 7.5 million as recently as last month. The channel websites claim to have as many as 3.5 million unique visitors.
If the entertainment sector is engaging with kids online than the education sector is not far behind. Web 18 recently announced a tie up with Geocom International for a unique proposition. They have launched MySchool.In.com an online education community which targets kids from kindergarten to 12 class. They have Ryan International as their first client to use this platform for sharing daily activities and potion covered in school.
According to Grace Pinto, MD, Ryan International told CNBC-TV18, “If a child is absent or parents are not able to send their child to school for a particular day due to some reason, they can log on to the website and find out the portion being missed by the child.” MySchool.in also has a lot of interactive content. It has videos, stories and many games for the kids to play. It also has a trivia section which is very informative.
The only worry is how secured is the portal. A parent has to worry about the fact that when the child registers onto the portal it asks for all sort data like school, class, division , roll number. This data if falls into the wrong person‘s hand can be misused and can be dangerous.
At WATBlog we await your views on what governing bodies should do to keep this GenY safe online and nurture them to be gems of future.
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Nice one ..I can relate to it as my 3 year old can click and navigate to pages on the net and attempts to read words..so I guess he will soon have an orkut/facebook account too
An interesting timely article. The fears expressed are genuine. It is just like making toddlers understand for certain, how to cross a traffic heavy road. We drill into their heads, the dangers that lurk, the risks they should not take and the cautions they must follow.We have policemen too, to patrol and regulate traffic. The toddlers should be taught about all possible dangers that lie when they surf the limited internet area they are permitted to and the precautions they must take. The wicked characters in cartoons have taught them how they have to be careful. This aspect will work well. They will take the caution seriously. Despite this also, something undesirable may happen. This is inevitable. But the saving grace will be, the damage will be of a lesser magnitude.