Social media has a significant impact on children, shaping their behaviour, emotions, and mental well-being at a young age. Constant screen time can reduce real-life interaction, weaken family communication, and affect concentration and emotional development.
After three minor sisters died after jumping off the 9th floor of their residential building in Ghaziabad during the late hours of Tuesday, actor Sonu Sood expressed concern over online gaming addiction and excessive social media use among children, urging parents and authorities to impose strict restrictions on minors’ access to digital platforms.
Reacting to the incident, Sood shared a video message on Instagram, saying that children today face immense, unseen pressure from constant exposure to online gaming and social media, while lacking emotional support and meaningful interaction at home.
“.... three children lost their lives in Ghaziabad. These children were not defeated, they were left alone. In the world of online and social media, we have left our children so far that we cannot hear their silence,” the actor said.
“Some time ago, I said that we have to keep children under 16 years of age away from the world of online and social media. But we get so busy in our lives that we forget that there is another member of our family who is our mobile phone, our social media, with whom the children want to spend more time than us,” he said, calling for stronger parental involvement and emotional support.
“But we do not have time for them either. Because we have given them a mobile phone with social media so that they can keep reading, keep watching. Technology is necessary for education, but it does not mean that we are putting the lives of our children at risk for that technology,” he noted.
“There should be a mobile phone for education, but not for social media, especially for children of a young age. Let’s try together today to remove that member who is dividing our family. Before that, let’s make a law together so that our children can live with us, not with social media, not with online gaming,” he said.
Sonu Sood wrote in the caption, “Social media can wait. Childhood can’t” (ANI)
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