Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
One in three Hong Kong kindergarten pupils spends at least an hour a day on social media, a survey has found. Also, more than 80 per cent of arguments between parents and kids are about screen time.
The Hong Kong Institute of Family Education’s survey found that 34.7 per cent of kindergarten kids spend at least one hour a day on social media. The Department of Health says children ages two to five should have no more than one hour of screen time a day.
Sixty per cent of lower form secondary school students and 66.6 per cent of senior form students exceeded the global two-hour daily limit.
Tik Chi-yuen, the institute’s head, said kids in kindergarten mostly used screens to watch videos and talk to family using their parents’ accounts.
He said the trend was “not that worrying” because it was not common among these parents to use electronic gadgets to keep children quiet.
Tik urged the government to tighten regulation of children’s social media use, including restricting access for those under 16. He also asked schools and community groups to give more help to parents so they can learn digital skills and become better parents.
