If we were to imagine that technology is a person, we would start this article by apologizing to them for being a little ungrateful. But much like the old idiom-"Every coin has two sides", the internet and technology have their own version of these two sides.

On one side, when the world broke down and offices and schools shut due to Covid-19, it is the internet that came to our rescue. We moved our offices, schools, and businesses to the internet and continued this digital conduct of the world.
It wasn't a smooth sale for anyone involved. Entrepreneurs had to find a way to keep their business running and their staffs resourceful during such a time, employees had to find a way to adjust their everyday life and office in a single room with no interaction with the outside world. And students, above all, had to sacrifice the best time of their life by planting themselves in front of a computer screen and attending their lecture without having met any of their friends in over a year.
But at least we know that their education process was not hindered. We can only imagine the impact that a similar pandemic would have had a decade ago. Students would have straight away lost a couple of years from their education and people would have run out of jobs and incomes.

• But however grateful we are about the role of technology and electronic gadgets in the current circumstances, we cannot overlook the potential danger of misuse and misguided exposure. The internet is a vast platform with so horrid things that we cannot even imagine before we have seen it. 70% of the internet is said to be the dark web, where illegal, explicit, and violent content is available in excess and many young children are often misdirected to these pages.
• Not only that, but the faceless online communities are many a time hackers and scammers hidden behind a fake name and a fake profile. Children are too young to be blamed for the misuse of gadgets provided to them for educational support. Even when they make a conscious choice to do something that they are not meant to do, they are more often than not heavily misguided and influenced. Children are vulnerable to a very reckless kind of curiosity.

Here are some ways in which the adult in charge can prevent the misuse of electronic gadgets provided to a student for educational purposes.

1. Know the difference between intrusion of privacy and ensuring protection :-

   Many times, parents do not feel intruding on the privacy of a child. They feel wrong and guilty to check their children's phones and devices behind their back. And also parents tend to trust their children and their dedication to education that they prefer to ignore abundant possibilities of exploitation on the internet. But this does not ever prevent them from worrying. Parents often find themselves stuck between this guilt and concern. Know the difference between intrusion of privacy and being preventive and protective about your child. It is not only okay but also advised to keep a tap on what your child is doing on the internet. This might not necessarily mean going through their text messages, but simply keeping a tap on the website that they have visited will give you an idea of what they are being exposed to on the internet.

2. Limit the use pof gadgets beyond education :-

   Simply because a child needs to use electronic gadgets to avail online education, does not mean that they have to have ownership over their gadgets. It is important to specify exactly what the child is allowed to do on the internet or through their devices. It is also important to keep a tap on their online class timings and restrict or limit the use of the internet and devices after that. After considering the timings on their online classes, make sure to schedule the rest of their time in other activities like watching television with the family, playing board games, reading books or anything that doesn’t require them to stick to their gadgets all the time.

3. Make sure that they use the devices in areas of the house visible to the grown :-

   UPS- Given that your children are still school students, discourage and restrict the use of devices and internet in private places like the bathroom, their locked bedrooms or using them late in the night when the rest of the family is asleep. If your children are below the age of 15, it is also best to discourage the use of devices when other members of the family are not home.

4. Have the conversation :-

   However many restrictions that you put on a child, we have to admit that the internet is too easy of a resource to get hold of. The search history can be deleted, there is internet on the phone, and just about any restriction is not 100% foolproof. And our children are digitally smarter than any of us. So have a conversation with them. Be a little vulnerable and admit to them that however much you trust them, you are worried about their safety on the internet. Talk to them about what they can be exposed to on the internet if they are not careful enough and what effect it could have on their mind. Tell them that they can come to you with any question that they might have about anything that they see on the internet and they will not be judged for asking them. Children surf through the internet to quench their curiosity, which is a very natural human instinct. If you assure them that they can come to you, they will no longer be as tempted to go from webpage to webpage seeking excitement.

HOW THE LEXICON SCHOOLS EMPOWERS CHILDREN TO MAKE BETTER CHOICES WITH THEIR GADGETS :-

• Keeping a child from misusing gadgets or the internet is a collaborative effort between the parents and the school. Just as much as the parents are responsible to monitor their children and what they are doing on the internet, the school and the teachers are also responsible for creating an internet environment for the child where they are encouraged to learn on the internet.
• Schools must be open and clear about what the internet has the potential to do, in terms of its positive and negative effects. At the Lexicon Schools, we make sure to have open conversations with our children about maintaining a healthy and controlled relationship with the internet.
• With or without the pandemic, every school must make active efforts to navigate children through the internet before they explore the internet under the influence of communities of people who do not wish the best for them.
• Keeping children in the dark about the true nature of the internet is rather unfair to them because this way they are always at the risk of being misdirected.
• At the Lexicon Schools, we make the students feel empowered and trusted. It is not the restrictions and prohibitions that we use as tools to protect children from the internet, but awareness, education, and trust.

You might not be able to control what is on the internet but you can very much educate the person using the internet and that makes all the difference.