Delhi for kids: Parents struggle to keep up as little ones turn e-savvy

Updated on: Thursday, February 16, 2012

Archana Pushkarna's nine-year-old son has been ordering books and pencil boxes online. She showed him the way when she was carrying her second child and now he's getting his friends at school started on it.

Young kids, initiated into the world of the internet early, are hitting the ground running. And parents , constantly trying to catch-up , are finding pre-teen netizens as comfortable online as their older counterparts.

"I told Maullick how to go about it and he never asked me again," says Pushkarna. Maullick and his friends first ventured online about two years ago. They check Facebook accounts and play games on every games site they can find," she says. However, Archana has limited the amount of time her son can spend online to a few hours on weekends. That is typical of the net-surfing of tech-savvy tots. They start out early, get hooked, pick up very quickly and soon have nervous parents curbing their virtual activities and engaging in policing.

Another mother who initiated her daughter into the internet only to be left far behind is Zeba Awan. Her 11-year-old daughter, Hiba, is now impatient with Awan and thinks that she's too slow online. Hiba downloads songs and movies, watches videos - "kisne kisko joota maara" - waters her plants on a farming game, inspects photographs of friends on holiday and demands to go to the same destinations. "It started in Kolkata where her school would send all notices and assignments through their website as part of their campaign to save paper," says Awan. The habit stuck. "Now she's demanding a mobile," Zeba continues , "Two-three girls of her agegroup already have hand-medowns from their parents." Her youngest daughter, Tahoora, started on Facebook as soon as she learnt the alphabet.

Aadya (10) learnt the ropes at her creche where the owner's daughter watched videos online. Now, she knows her way about the net as well as any adult. "It gives me the jitters. Now I change the password but eventually Aadya will figure it out," says Aditi Dang, her mother. "She was first addicted to Hannah Montana and then Justin Bieber. She downloaded their music and watched their videos," says Dang. But the most startling part was when an older cousin called Aditi to ask if she was sending chat messages on Aadya's behalf for the kid was responding fast and was well-versed in the language of the internet, including emoticons.

Times of India

Delhi for kids: Parents struggle to keep up as little ones turn e-savvy

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