#GadgetFreeHour Seeks To Strike A Chord On World Children’s Day

New Delhi: One of the many adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is the fact that people of all ages are spending more time on their mobile phones, laptops and tabs.

More screen time is not good for the eyes, but it has become a necessity for family members in the age of lockdown and restrictions as students are confined to online learning and professionals adopt to work from home.

To encourage parents to spend quality time with their children, free of a virtual world, ParentCircle — a parenting magazine published from Chennai – encourages all families in India to observe #GadgetFreeHour between 7.30 pm and 8.30 pm once a year, on World Children’s Day.

Family members are urged to switch off all gadgets during this one hour and spend time with each other – laughing, eating, playing, chatting to rediscover the pleasure of each other’s company.

The #GadgetFreeHour initiative, started in 2019, saw more than a million parents and over 41,635 schools participating in the event last year, ParentCircle claimed.

This time, over 50 million people are expected to disconnect from their electronic gadgets to mark World’s Children Day on Saturday.

This year’s theme for World Children’s Day is ‘A better future for every child’.