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hildren'€™s welfare NGO SOS Children'€™s Villages is encouraging parents and children to strengthen ties by turning off gadgets

Targeting mall visitors at a recent event, the NGO provided a playground, a talk show on parenting, classes on art, magic and music, as well as dance and story-telling performances for families to choose from.

The organization brought 30 children from their facility in Cibubur, East Jakarta, to a mall in West Jakarta to organize an event themed '€œUnplugged Family Day'€, with the aim of educating couples about parenting, particularly in how to create stronger bonds with children.

SOS communication manager Masayu Yulien Vinanda said parents should develop and maintain good communications with their children and regulate gadget-use, as gadgets could damage family bonding.

'€œResearch shows that one out of three kids under five years of age uses a gadget as a means to play. This is not healthy for the kids and we want to raise awareness among families out there to reduce the use of gadgets by their children,'€ she said.

Parental communication specialist Hana Yasmira told parents at the talk show that gadgets, which were created as a means of communication, had now become a barrier to communication between parents and children.

Lisa, a 40-year-old housewife who attended the event, said she had not given her 10-year-old daughter any gadgets, although almost all her friends had. '€œBut I do allow her to play games at Timezone at weekends,'€ she said.

Cherry Triwiyani, a 38-year-old Jakartan, said her 12-year-old son received a cell phone from his grandmother last year. '€œI allow him to use it on the weekends and only for communications with his grandmother in Surabaya,'€ she said.

Hana quoted Health Minister Nila Moeloek, who said parents should not give gadgets to children under five or six years of age because doing so could damage their eyesight.

'€œWhen talking with a child, be a good listener, set your gadget on silent mode and turn off the TV,'€ Hana said. '€œThink positively about the child and respond to his or her questions constructively.'€

She said that instead of giving gadgets to children, parents should bond with them by doing activities like jogging or cooking together.

'€œBy having good communication, parents can see into their child'€™s heart and understand their way of thinking,'€ said Hana, who holds a graduate degree in communication. '€œGood communication, therefore, can become the most effective means for parents to control their children.'€

Hana said in order to have open, honest and quality discussion, parents could also discuss other stuff, such as art and sexual education.

Hana, an author of several parenting books, reminded the audience that once children reached 15 years of age, bad habits would be harder to break.

SOS Children'€™s Villages is a non-profit organization that focuses on the development of less fortunate children by facilitating foster families living in villages. In Indonesia, the organization takes care of more than 1,300 foster children at branches in eight cities: Jakarta, Medan in North Sumatra; Banda Aceh and Meulaboh in Aceh; Flores in East Nusa Tenggara; Tabanan in Bali; Lembang in West Java; and Semarang in Central Java. (rbk)