Сase study in Russia: the views of parents on schoolchildren’s cyber addiction in the course of online learning

Abstract

Not only children but also adults now spend much more time in front of the screen (computers, laptops, tablets, phones, TVs, Play Station, other game consoles, etc.) for various reasons: work, study, a lot of free time, communication, entertainment, information retrieval. The aim of this paper is to examine how the time spent in front of the screen at school influence the developing of computer addiction in primary schoolchildren. The development of Internet addiction has negative educational (deterioration of academic performance), medical (reduced mental health, decreased general stress-resistance, risk of depression), and social consequences (reduced quality and quantity of social contacts). The respondents were 120 parents and 120 secondary school students of one of the schools in Moscow. The participants were asked to answer 9 multiple-choice questions. To assess the level of Internet addiction of schoolchildren, the Internet Addiction Test created by K. Young and modified by V.A. Loskutova (Burova) was used. As a result, 69% of the parents surveyed noted that their children spend more than four hours a day on online learning. Proposed approach consists of two stages, which are a gradual reduction of the time children spend on the Internet and the replacement of problematic behavior with other alternatives. The research results provide the knowledge to prevent cyber addiction in schoolchildren and the incentive for further research.