Don’t ban screens but teach students to use devices purposefully
Singapore does not take a binary view of device usage, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing, even as Australia passed a law in late 2024 to ban social media for children aged under 16.
This approach of not banning devices is more challenging, but more practical at the same time, he said.
A local research effort in child development, called Growing Up In Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes, showed detrimental cognitive impacts when children are exposed to screen time before the age of two.
In an interview with The Straits Times, Mr Chan said the study showed that unsupervised consumption of videos for more than two hours could result in a drop in IQ by the time a child turns seven years old.
For teenagers, he said the greatest concerns are video-gaming and how social media can affect self-worth and lead to incessant comparisons with others.
Despite such potential dangers, students should not be prevented from using devices, but be taught how to use them purposefully, he said.
“It’s a bit like discovering fire… Fire can be both good and bad. If you don’t know how to use it, you burn down everything. Use it properly, and you can use it to cook and generate electricity,” Mr Chan said, adding that people should not be shielded from devices and end up not knowing how to use them.
“We have to guide them on how to use the device and when to use the device.”
Schools already ban the use of mobile phones during lesson time, he said. Parents also need to manage usage of devices at home, while understanding their children’s needs.
“A lot of it is role-modelling. You cannot tell your child don’t use the device, but we’re all playing with it while having dinner.”
Referring to the use of personal learning devices in secondary schools, Mr Chan said that 75 per cent of parents do not change the default settings from the device management apps installed in these devices.
However, half of the remaining parents would like tighter controls and the other half question the strict measures.
“We have both extreme ends. When parents set it too tight, the child tries to find ways to bypass. If they set it too loose, the child runs all over the place,” he said, adding that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to this issue.
Rather, it is about educating children and parents to use devices in an age-appropriate way, he said.
Australia’s move to pass a law on Nov 28 to ban social media for those under 16 is “interesting to consider”, said Mr Chan, but will be hard to implement and does not solve all problems stemming from social media use in teenagers.
He said that while countries like Singapore and India – which have identification systems to verify a person’s age – can implement such harsh bans, there are ways to bypass them.
He added that social media sites can find ways to get around countries’ laws, if they do not have any incentive to align with national objectives.
When applied correctly at the right level, learning devices can be useful in the classroom, said Mr Chan. “You can actually amplify your teaching and learning outcomes,” he said, adding that for high-ability students who are able to display self-control and use devices appropriately and responsibly, these are important tools to help them learn.
Students with high needs, on the other hand, should be eased in gradually, to ensure they are able to build skills to regulate how they use devices.
“We are not in the school of thought that says that you must have this blanket (set of guidelines),” he said.
But Mr Chan said the Ministry of Education is clear that pupils in primary schools will not be issued their own personal learning devices. Instead, they will use shared devices available in school.
Educating all students on cyber wellness and cyber security is essential, so that they learn how to use devices responsibly, he said.
“There’s never too early an age that they cannot learn. Even at a young age, I think it’s about the inculcation of habits.”
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