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MBABANE – Clinical Psychologist Ndo Mdlalose urged parents to advance their technology skills and stop being stuck in the Stone Age stage.
She said there was high use of technology these days, therefore, parents of the 21st century should be equipped technologically. “I would suggest that parents have control of their children’s phones to limit over-exposure,” she said.
Coming to the issue of using church, Mdlalose blamed
COVID-19. She stated that, before, people respected the church and attended services.
She noted how the COVID-19 era introduced online services and how some churches had continued to stream services online, while holding in-person services.
Value
For that reason, some parents would sit at home and not go to church, thus creating a room for their children or the youth to engage in uncouth activities.
“Children, especially young girls, have lost the value meaning of life in general be it education and spirituality. They just don’t care; research shows that girls have become more defiant,” she said.
For that reason, they end up hooking up with the older partners. “This is a new era; before, children went to church alone but currently, we need to be involved in everything in order to save our children,” she said.
Mdlalose said some churches required the parents to register their children, drop them and pick them up after service.
Children have easy access to hundreds of TV stations and millions of Internet sites. They can buy or download countless video games and apps. They can stream movies on many devices and watch YouTube or TikTok videos at the swipe of a finger. And they can interact socially online with friends and strangers using social media platforms. There’s a lot of media out there, and some of it might not be appropriate for your child, depending on their age and maturity level.
The best way to monitor media that children use is to experience the media yourself. Test apps and play games before your children use them. View and play apps and games together. And watch what they watch so you can talk about what they see on their screens. You know your children best, so you’re the best judge of what they can handle.