A tragic incident in Karnataka’s Hassan district has drawn attention to the growing problem of smartphone dependency in children.
A 13-year-old boy was found dead after his parents refused to buy him a phone, the local community was horrified and new questions about children’s mental health and digital addiction also came up.
So the boy had been asking his parents for a phone for some time, police sources said. His parents refused to give him a phone, they said, because they feared a smartphone at that age could affect his studies and overall development.
The boy allegedly took the extreme step at home after the dispute. Family members soon found him and rushed him to a nearby hospital. Doctors declared him dead, despite medical assistance.
Police arrived to the site after receiving information about the incident and conducted an initial inquiry. The body was sent to the hospital for postmortem examination and a case of unnatural death was registered. Police investigations are now taking into account all aspects of the incident and recording all the family members’ and neighbours’ statements.
The tragic episode has once more brought into focus the increasing impact of smartphones on children’s lives. While mobile phones have been used for education and communication, the level of freedom can also result in a degree of dependency.
But parents must be able to tell when something bad is happening and get kids to talk out what’s wrong with them and help them to be OK, they say.
Parents should talk about expectations, feelings and digital habits with their kids regularly, mental health professionals say. Rather than denying them screen time or allowing them to roam free, they say, and explain why it’s that way. Schools and communities too have to support emotional resilience and mental health awareness.
The news of the boy's death attracted chat rooms and social media users were distraught and many expressed grief for the young boy’s death. Parents, teachers, and society must pay more attention to children’s emotional pain, for example, and adults need to be more mindful of that, too.
This is something that is the point of balanced smartphone usage and responsible parenting as well as responsible parenting, one said.
In emotional situations, child psychologists say adolescents are often too quick to react impulsively. They are also telling parents to recognize behavioral changes such as prolonged sadness, withdrawal from family, anger, or anxiety and, if necessary, to seek professional help.
The tragedy is a reminder that communication, emotional support, and being knowledgeable about children’s mental health are just as important as monitoring their use of digital devices as investigations continue.
The authorities will complete the investigation once all the evidence in the case has been evaluated.
