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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

75% of children use mobiles in Oman: Report

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We live in an era where the use of the Internet via electronic devices is inevitable and the need of the hour. As years pass by, the use of social media is increasingly becoming an integral part of growing children, their parents, and even teachers.


A report by the National Committee for Family Affairs said that social media has emerged as an alternative to traditional means of communication, which can have both pros and cons.


The study conducted in 2020 by the Ministry of Social Development said that 99 percent of children in Oman use electronic devices, 75 percent of children use mobile phones and 45 percent have computers.


It revealed that more than 35 percent of children own video games, some of them are inappropriate and may pass on the wrong message to these generations. Children use intelligent devices for one to two hours (24 percent), two to three hours (21 percent), and three to five hours (17 percent), the report said.


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More than 50 percent of children use the Internet every two to five hours and frequently during weekends, holidays, and nighttime, indicating that some children have their private social media accounts.


The study said that 90 percent of children use these applications for entertainment, while others use them for information and making new friends. “Social media can be defined as the hidden factor that lives with us by influencing our feelings, behavior and practices,” the study added.


Speaking to the Observer, a student counsellor said: “Social media and the Internet are the prime sources of information these days, and these cannot be kept away from children. What is important is to have some degree of control so that parents can monitor the data accessed by children, which is not impossible. Necessary measures should be taken to protect a child from the negative impact of social media.”


According to the recently published market indicators by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), for the second half of 2022, Facebook saw an increase in the number of users by 12 percent compared to the first half of the same year.


Adnan bin Mustafa al Farsi, Director of the Technical Secretariat of the National Committee for Family Affairs, said: “Technological developments are very rapid, as the whole world is in our hands through a small device (smartphone), in addition to widespread of applications such as Instagram, Snapchat and the like, which have all come to represent a frightening obsession for families and communities.”


He stated that the Ministry of Social Development conducted, in cooperation with the Omani Social Society, 2020 a study on the impact of the use of social media on a child in society (social, educational, and psychological health), which was applied to a sample of school students exceeding 2,000 male and female children of different stages.


The number of users of TikTok dropped by 57 percent, followed by YouTube (-8 percent), WhatsApp (-12), and Zoom (-3). The number of Twitter users also dropped by five percent.


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