Draft policy on ‘Responsible Digital Use Among Students’ sets goals for parents, schools

The draft policy for “Responsible Digital Use Among Students”, released on Monday by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, has recommended that parents set structured routines with clear screen-time rules and prioritise privacy, safety, and open conversation with children on digital well-being.

It recommended that schools incorporate digital well-being and social media literacy in their curriculum, besides implementing special programmes for digital detox and identifying early mental health red flags.

The policy has been drafted in collaboration with the Karnataka State Mental Health Authority, NIMHANS, and the School Education Department, based on deliberations with stakeholders. It further recommended a set of “preventive, promotive, and responsive strategies for all schools to implement”.

“Parents should facilitate more peer interactions and conversations without screens, invite friends over for offline play, promote role play, group reading, or drama at home, and model face-to-face communication,” the draft said.

The Karnataka government has announced that it would bring in a policy to restrict social media use among children aged 16 years and below.

The draft policy aims “to create a safe, balanced, and psychologically healthy digital environment for students”.

“Parents should define screen time limits (as per age), mandatory screen-free time during meals, sleep hours, and study periods, tech curfew all screens off 1 hour before bedtime,” it recommended for parents, advocating marking digital free zones like bedroom, dining table, kitchen, bathroom, and motorised vehicle where no family members use technology. “Decide upon digital fasting time where no family members use any device,” said the draft.

On the responsibility of schools, the draft policy states, “Schools must incorporate digital well-being and social media literacy within the life skills, value education, and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) curriculum. Age-appropriate lessons on responsible digital behaviour, privacy, online safety, and screen-time balance should be taught regularly.”