The Assistant Programs Manager of Cyber Ghana, David Gavel has admonished parents and guardians to reduce the use of social media, and mobile phones that takes much of their productive time at the expense of paying less attention to responsibilities.
David’s comment comes on the back of a survey conducted by a Child Online Protection Expert which indicated that Ghanaian parents spend 24 per cent of their productive hours on social media.
According to the survey, sleep time takes 24 per cent, entertainment scored 10 per cent whilst household chores and errands recorded 8 per cent respectively.
Speaking on Spice 91.9FM, Mr Gavel noted that it is a worrying trend because most parents pay more attention to phones at the expense of neglecting parental duties.
“It is a worry, especially to parents, who are not using it for productive work but just for socialising and interacting with people on the internet,” he said.
He opined that, on the average, parents use about 5 hours on the mobile phone in a day, and estimates that within a year about One Hundred and Eighty (180) days are used on a mobile device.
Mr Gavel mentioned that, parents should not spend more of their time on social media if it doesn’t bring to them financial benefits and urged them to concentrate on their families as well as children.
He also observed that children learn from parents, and it is likely for these children to pick such attitudes from parents.
He decried the fall of physical interaction in some Ghanaian homes because family members have adopted to stay connected with friends on social media than their immediate family.
He, however, advised parents to desist from giving much attention to social media and invest more time in family responsibilities.
