Parents have a duty

“Mom, please take a cell phone break for a moment!”

The head of the Institute for Addiction Prevention, Rainer Schmidbauer, and Deputy Governor Christine Haberlander present a poster for the new campaign.(Bild: Bernadette Kerschbaummayr)

Every fifth toddler up to the age of six has their own cell phone or tablet. Parents are often the role models for excessive "wiping". A new initiative to consciously refrain from using smartphones when picking up children at nurseries is now putting parents and guardians in charge.

"Do you know what happened today? First we..." The little one starts to talk excitedly about their day at nursery, but mom or dad are distracted and their attention is on their smartphone - a situation that is likely to happen more often.

In order to reduce the frequency of such moments and encourage parents to take cell phone breaks, the Institute for Addiction Prevention has now launched a new campaign together with the province of Upper Austria. It aims to encourage parents to refrain from using their cell phones when picking up their children from kindergarten and nursery.

Every fifth toddler has a cell phone or tablet
"Children learn from what they see - and that starts with the very youngest. The conscious use of digital media in the family is crucial for healthy development," says Christine Haberlander (ÖVP), Deputy Governor for Education. After all, media consumption is now part of everyday life, even for the youngest children, and personal access to smart devices has increased. An alarming figure makes it clear: one in five young children (up to the age of six) has their own tablet, cell phone or smartphone.

Our addiction prevention services offer valuable support and concrete assistance for everyday life, both for educators and parents.

Rainer Schmidbauer, Leiter des Institutes Suchtprävention

Up to the age of three is a crucial time
The initiative is intended to help sensitize parents to media education that is appropriate for children in order to prevent unfavourable media usage patterns from developing. Rainer Schmidbauer (Institut Suchtprävention) emphasizes that the age of zero to three is the basis for bonding with caregivers and that sensitivity is particularly important during this time.

In addition to posters, the tools made available to the educational institutions also included talks for parents and internal training courses to supplement and deepen the knowledge of the teachers.

Kommentar

Weil Eltern eben auch nur Menschen sind

Everyone agrees that parents should be good role models. I know from my own experience how difficult it is in everyday life to really set a good example. Parents are only human.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV, Alexander Schwarzl, Markus Wenzel)

When it comes to cell phone use, it's particularly difficult because the little things are omnipresent in everyday life. This makes it all the more important for parents to be aware that children are keeping a very close eye on their cell phones to make sure they don't miss the latest videos, pictures or news. Therefore: put the cell phone away and focus on the little ones instead. Because that time will never come again, and they grow up so quickly.