When children face technology addiction, parents are often their main support. It’s crucial for parents to learn effective strategies to understand, address, and manage their children's growing screen time
Published Jun 02, 2025 | 9:35 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 02, 2025 | 9:35 PM
A helpline for Digital Detox initiated by SHUT clinic in NIMHANS, Bengaluru. This helps in deaddiction of technology use. (Getty Image)
Synopsis: As concerns over tech addiction among children rise, experts at NIMHANS’ SHUT Clinic in Bengaluru stress that digital detox must start at home. They urge parents to lead by example by practicing digital fasting—disconnecting from screens as a family for even 40 minutes. With parents often being the only support system, learning to manage screen time effectively is crucial
When you ask your child to not look up from a screen, then maybe you shouldn’t either. That’s the blunt message from experts at NIMHANS’ SHUT (Service for Healthy Use of Technology) Clinic in Bengaluru, who believe that digital fasting must begin at home—with parents setting the example. In response to rising technology addiction among children and teens, the clinic is now turning its attention to the most influential people in a child’s life: their parents.
“Parents should start setting boundaries for themselves too, not just for their children. For digital fasting, the whole family should try to disconnect from technology together for a set period—even as short as 40 minutes—and spend some quality time together. This can be a powerful way to reset, especially when everyone participates,” said Dr Manoj Sharma, head of the SHUT Clinic at NIMHANS to South First.
When a child is struggling with technology addiction, parents are often the primary—and sometimes the only—source of support. Therefore, it is essential for parents to learn effective management techniques to address and manage their children’s increasing screen time.
Children these days often rely on highly addictive technology to cope with the stresses in their lives, without realizing that this dependence can actually add to their overall stress. Hridhya MS, junior consultant NIMHANS Bengaluru explains the cognitive thoughts behind this.
“When online, they feel like they are missing out on something. The fear of missing out what is happening with their social circle or if they are not online, people might not be friends with them, or thoughts like, ‘this is the only way to deal with my emotions.’ When they are online, they feel better. They feel this is the way of coping with emotions and feeling better.” said Hridhya
The impacts of technology addiction span across multiple domains. Physically, it can lead to issues such as vision problems, headaches, muscle pain, and neck or shoulder strain—often caused by prolonged screen use and poor posture. In the emotional or psychological domain, excessive phone use may result in increased irritability and dependence on devices as a primary coping mechanism. Socially, it can contribute to feelings of loneliness, heightened social anxiety, and a decline in interpersonal skills.
Dr Manoj also mentioned that most of the concerns raised by parents are related to gaming, followed by social media, with some cases involving pornography, which ranks third in frequency. “Most adolescents are playing for almost 8 to 10 hours a day, minimum games and all. And when they play for 8 to 10 hours- they remain with the screen and lose out on various day-to-day productive activities.” said Dr Sharma.
He further observed that many students are no longer motivated to excel academically or pursue long-term life goals. Instead, they aspire to become YouTubers, streamers, or professional gamers. “Parents are aware that e-sports can be a career, but they often feel that, in terms of long-term benefits, it’s not very significant. They want their children to find a balance in their use of technology,” he added.
Sometimes, there’s a breakdown in communication between parents and children. The child may feel misunderstood, or may start showing disobedient behaviour. This can lead to family conflicts—adolescents may become aggressive, or parents may respond harshly or resort to approaches that the child resents. All of this creates distress within the family. That’s why it is necessary to promote healthy communication and to equip parents with the right strategies to guide their children’s technology use in a constructive way.
To support parents struggling with their children’s technology addiction, NIMHANS Bengaluru’s SHUT Clinic, in collaboration with the NIMHANS Centre for Well-Being (NCWB), has launched free parent group sessions. These sessions aim to enhance parenting and communication skills while providing a platform for shared experiences and practical guidance.
The groups are intentionally kept small to ensure personal attention and maintain confidentiality. Parents often experience mild levels of sadness, anxiety, and stress, which can impact their own productivity—especially when their children show a decline in academic or daily functioning. To support them, counselling is also provided to ensure parents; mental well- being, enabling them to care for their children more effectively.
The parent group sessions are intended to create awareness based on blanket guidelines, family-level strategies, and community-level actions that can help parents have a better understanding of technology addiction. The primary focus is on enhancing knowledge through cyber literacy. The second goal is helping parents develop effective communication skills. The third is building
conflict resolution abilities.
“These are the three key areas we work on. However, even after learning these skills, repetition is important. Repeated sessions help consolidate knowledge, strengthen communication strategies, and further improve conflict resolution skills,” said Dr. Sharma.
With growing demand from parents, the SHUT Clinic plans to conduct more parent group sessions in the coming months. “Once we complete this round of sessions, we plan to offer booster sessions to further strengthen parents’ skills in managing technology-related issues. Technology is constantly evolving, so new challenges may arise that parents are unfamiliar with. These can be addressed in the booster sessions,” said Dr. Sharma.
“We also run a helpline every Friday to provide ongoing support,” he added
(Edited by Ananya Rao)
