Why is chatting on Facebook addictive to teenagers?
Yang QiaoHao
1/24/2001
Why is chatting on Facebook addictive to teenagers? Many people, especially parents, want to know why their child is chatting on Facebook so often that they get addicted to it.Is it possible to become so engaged with online and fantasy worlds that you lose a sense of perspective on real life? Well, this research will find out all about it and answer their questions. Teenagers are becoming so addicted to texting and surfing the net that they behave like recovering drug addicts when forced to switch their gadgets off, alarming research has found as reported in The Daily Mirror (London, England) They spent more than five hours on the computer and four of which are spent chatting on Facebook nowadays. Some teenagers even chat with their friends online more than talking to their parents. The National Parents' Council director Catherine Riordan once said that she was sure the average teenager would struggle if forced to live without their technology. Due to the advancing high technology, people use smart phone more often and some parents even buy their child a smart phone. This helps their child to chat with their friends online with a portable device at almost anytime, anywhere. I am sure that when the reason is revealed, parents will know what to do to prevent their child from using Facebook. (214 words) . 1. Framing your research topic a. Problems in getting the results - There may be all kinds of answers from the interviewers as there is no exact reason to this question. - The interviewers may not want to tell the reason as they want to have some privacy. - The interviewers might not also know the reasons as they might just say they feel like chatting with their friends. b. Some solutions - Their parents spent too little time with their child, so they chat with their friends. - There is no one at home, so they feel lonely and start chatting with their friends. - Some of them are in a relationship with friends of the opposite gender, so they like to chat together on Facebook. 2. Reasons for choice of topic: a. I want to research on this topic as I find that many of my friends are extremely addicted in chatting on Facebook and their parents can do nothing about it. b. It helps me by making me interested in this topic and has the motivation to help them solve their problems. Most importantly, this can help parents and teenagers all over the world solve their problems of getting addicted to chatting on Facebook. c. (iii) This topic can help teenagers all over the world to solve their problems of getting addicted to chatting on Facebook. Most importantly, their parents will also know what to do to stop them from being addicted. 3. Feasibility for my topic a. I think that my project is necessary as many of the people worldwide want to know the answer as this case of addiction happens frequently. b. It is possible to complete this project. All I need is the truthful answers from the interviewers and good resource from the internet. c. It is very logical and realistic. I don’t need any mass contributions or political supports to do this research. d. This project can provide sufficient opportunity to students as they can help to brainstorm reasons and to help ask the interviewers for their opinions. 4. Manageability of the project a. The writing, surveying and researching will be divided equally to my group members. During RE periods, we can also stay back and discuss what have we done and what we should do now. Most importantly, we will find time and analysis the results of our research and put everything in a systematic order. b. We will have time to sit together and discuss our progress and status. This will give us plenty of opportunities to do group work together and cooperate with one another. c. I will have trouble like not finishing the project within the deadline or some group members have problems with what they should do. I will ask my group to work as a team and together we will overcome the difficulties and challenges. ‘One for all, all for one’! 5. Accessibility of the information required a. I will need information on Facebook and survey result on the time teenagers spent chatting on Facebook. I also need to know what teenagers chat about normally in order to get the results. These can normally be found in Journals or newspapers articles. b. I will obtain this kind of information from primary sources. As these kinds of information are very important to the project, I cannot afford to have mistakes in them. So, I will not take this information from secondary sources. c. If this doesn’t work, I will have to put more effort in surveying teenagers about their opinions and reasons. d. I have anticipated problems such as the interviewers want to have privacy. Some writers could also be bias and write articles that benefit him/her. REFERENCES Ahmed-Ullah, Noreen S. (2010, March 10). 'parent universities' help deal with the modern teen. Chicago Tribune, p. 1. From:https://discovery.ri.edu.sg/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_45_1 CHI-LOONG, CHAN. (2010, Feburary 17). Managing kids on the internet . The Straits Times, pp. 10,11 From:http://newslink.asiaone.com/user/OrderArticleRequest.action?order=&_sourcePage=%2FWEB-INF%2Fjsp%2Fuser%2Fsearch_type_result.jsp&month=02&year=2010&date=17&docLanguage=en&documentId=nica_ST_2010_14949568 LING KAI, GAN. (2010, December 19). Lost at night in cyber space . The New Paper, p. 10. From:http://newslink.asiaone.com/user/OrderArticleRequest.action?order=&_sourcePage=%2FWEB-INF%2Fjsp%2Fuser%2Fsearch_type_result.jsp&month=12&year=2010&date=19&docLanguage=en&documentId=nica_NP_2010_18570059 Appendix 1
Managing kids on the Internet
Section:
Features
By:
CHAN CHI-LOONG
Publication:
The Straits Times 17/02/2010
Page:
10,11
No. of words:
802
Singapore Computer Society Roundtable
Keeping your children safe in cyberspace has never been more challenging. Experts fill CHAN CHI-LOONG in on the principles of online safety
KEEPING your kids from going on the Internet is like fighting a losing game because of today's wired lifestyles.
However, regulating Internet usage in a draconian fashion will not do either.
The best way, said experts at a panel discussion on Internet And Children, is to teach them the principles of online safety.
Held on Feb 5, the group of technology and education professionals – all parents themselves – met an audience keen to pick up parenting tips and learn about privacy issues and Internet addiction.
The event was hosted by the Singapore Computer Society and Digital Life.
The only thing that everybody agreed on was that blocking kids from the Internet is going to be increasingly difficult.
"I'm trying my best to delay giving my kids mobile phones and Facebook accounts," said Oo Gin Lee, deputy editor of Digital Life, who is concerned about keeping them away from the dangers of the Internet.
"But we can't keep them away from it forever."
Fact supports intuition.
According to the 2008 annual survey by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore, 96 per cent of children aged 7 to 14 have accessed the Internet at least once in 12 months, and 76 per cent of Singapore households have access to the Internet. The trend of more children accessing the Internet seems unstoppable. Both numbers have been growing every year since 2003 when IDA started the survey.
Thomas Chong, director of the Early Child Institute, PAP Community Foundation, summed up the need to manage and not run from this issue: "The Internet is a double-edged sword. It can either be a good servant or a terrible master."
Below are four tips from the panel's discussion.
1 Get your feet wet
This is the best way to defuse fear.
"If you don't try, you won't know," said Thomas. Given that cyberspace has made our world smaller, it becomes necessary for parents to learn about the Internet.
One audience member, a professor from the Nanyang Technological University, told an amusing story of how his grandmother, in her 90s, set up a date for him by going to his Facebook profile to get his photograph and e-mail.
2 Earn your kids' trust early
It is best to build up trust when the kids are young, said Angie Chew Monksfield, an adjunct associate professor at the Singapore Management University, who teaches planning and portfolio management in the information systems division.
This way, children will respect the boundaries you have laid even when they are teenagers.
Said Angie: "You can prevent them from going on the Internet at home but they can always go to a friend's house or a cafe."
The trick is to give them room to explore, yet remain vigilant of potential dangers.
Said Gin Lee: "To gain their trust and to be treated like their peer, parents should learn and experience the latest apps with their children."
3 Inculcate self-discipline
Angeline Khoo, associate professor of psychological studies at the National Institute of Education, noted that kids should learn to have self-discipline and regulate their own Internet use.
This boils down to inculcating the right values. Easier said than done, audience members hotly pointed out.
Go back to basics and start young, said the panellists. They suggested parents could get an older sibling to mentor a younger child on which sites to avoid.
Another way is to place the computers in the living room so that adults can keep an eye on the websites children are visiting.
4 Teach kids to guard their privacy
The line between what is private – and should be kept "offline" – and what can be said or made public online is blurring, Jonathan Wong, a technology evangelist at Microsoft, said.
The reason: Youth, caught up with living and playing online, do not realise the implications of revealing too much information. For example, when people shoot videos of themselves in various stages of undress and post the clips online.
The clips can come back to haunt them, as in the case of a former Singapore air-stewardess whose video clip of her having sex was posted online and was reported in the media two weeks ago.
Youths should also guard against posting false information of themselves to portray a different persona. Doing so could get them into trouble as they need to spin bigger webs of deceit to keep up with that image, only to have the webs unravel at some point.
I'm trying my best to delay giving my kids mobile phones and Facebook accounts. But we can't keep them away from it forever.
Oo Gin Lee, deputy editor of Digital Life, who is concerned about keeping his children away from the dangers of the Internet
The panellists (from left)
Angeline Khoo, associate professor of psychological studies, National Institute of Education
Thomas Chong, director of the Early Child Institute, PAP Community Foundation
Oo Gin Lee, deputy editor, Digital Life
Angie Chew Monksfield, adjunct associate professor of planning and portfolio management, Information Systems Division, Singapore Management University
Jonathan Wong, technology evangelist, Microsoft Moderator: Grace Chng, editor, Digital Life (not in picture)
Appendix 2 Lost at night in cyber space
Section:
News
By:
GAN LING KAI
Publication:
The New Paper 19/12/2010
Page:
10
No. of words:
871
When the lights are off, many students continue their social life online, affecting their studies and life in the real world
ARE some Singaporean youth and children becoming nocturnal creatures of cyberspace?
Daytime for them is usually spent on classes and co-curricular activities.
But when nightfall comes, their social life takes over. And it can stretch into the wee hours. They play computer games, blog, chat online and update their profiles on social networking sites.
That's what several counsellors, teachers, parents and teenagers told The New Paper on Sunday.
Mr Alfred Tan, 52, executive director of the Singapore Children's Society, believes that computer addiction for youth is becoming more serious in recent years.
And we need to find out what captivates the minds of our youth, he said.
The society is planning to conduct a survey early next year to understand how teenagers between the age of 13 and 17 spend their time after school hours.
The last time the society conducted a similar study was in 1996.
The figures for pathological video gamers here are alarming.
A recent survey by the Ministry of Education and the Media Development Authority showed that nearly nine per cent of the 3,000 students surveyed here are considered "pathological gamers".
This could lead to a host of other social problems. (See report on facing page.)
One 17-year-old junior college student, who wishes to be known only as Jun.
Every day, this junior college student indulges in multi-player online role-playing games, such as CounterStrike, from late afternoon till after 10pm.
Hardly anything, other than dinner and updating his Facebook account, interrupts his gaming activities.
He said he spends an average of 7 hours a day on gaming, and he hardly makes time to study.
But the "wake-up call" for this self-confessed gaming addict came when he got his results for examinations last month – he failed all four of his core subjects.
"When school reopens, I will study in the library. I need to stay away from my computer," Jun told us last Friday.
Dr Thomas Lee, the chief of the Addiction Medicine Department of the Institute of Mental Health, said that cyber or gaming addicts often neglect basic needs and responsibilities, such as personal hygiene, meals, sleep, relationships and attendance in school or social functions.
"Some of them have more virtual pals than real-world friends," Dr Lee added.
Immersed in fantasy world
A secondary school teacher in his 30s, who wanted to be known only as Mr Tan, said that at least five of the 30 students in his Normal Technical class are "glued to the computer".
"Once they are immersed in the fantasy world, they lose interest in schoolwork."
Mr Tan said school counsellors meet these students weekly to help them break the addiction.
Another teacher, in her 20s, who wanted to be known only as Anna, said: "Many students have smartphones and they can log on all day to update their Facebook and Twitter accounts..."
Anna, who is teaching in a school which offers the Integrated Programme, said: "Some fall asleep in class because they use the computers till the wee hours at home.
"Even if their parents can't be with them physically all the time, they should at least know what their children are up to."
A spokesman from Touch Cyber Wellness – an agency that counsels people with pathological gaming behaviour – said parents should establish rules for their children's online activities so that studies and health are not affected.
Prudent parents Mrs Sam Ran Pereira, 51, a public relations consultant, is one such prudent parent.
She insisted that her daughter use the computer in the living room till the age of 11.
"My husband and I wanted to make sure she doesn't use foul language or post any group pictures of her friends, who may be posing sexily, online.
"It's a given that parents should teach their children good manners. Now, we must also educate them on cyberspace usage and etiquette."
Since last year, Mrs Pereira has allowed her daughter, now 13, to use her computer in her bedroom.
"When there is trust, we don't have to police strictly," Mrs Pereira said.
Another parent, Mr Yeh Kek Kwong, a 56-year-old shop assistant, agrees.
"There's no point in shouting at the kids. We can only reason with them," he said.
His son Yuze used to spend seven hours daily playing computer games, and scored mostly Cs and Ds in his first year in his polytechnic course.
"But I got my wake-up call in my second year," said Yuze, now a 22-year-old interior architecture designer.
Yuze went on to become one of the top students in his course. He graduated from Temasek Polytechnic two years ago with a GPA of 3.34.
But experts also say that youths being active online may not necessarily be a bad thing.
Said Dr Lee: "Teenagers can use online platforms to reinforce existing relationships. Puzzles and strategy games help kids pick up problem-solving skills.
"It's all about moderation."
Said Yuze: "It's all right to spend time on the computer. A student just has to understand that he has to finish his work first."
For more information on computer addiction:
National Addictions Management Service: 6732 6837
Touch Cyber Wellness: 6273 5568
"Some fall asleep in class because they use the computers till the wee hours at home. Even if their parents can't be with them physically all the time, they should at least know what their children are up to."
– Anna, a teacher from a school which offers the Intergrated Programme
||
Why is chatting on Facebook addictive to teenagers?
Many people, especially parents, want to know why their child is chatting on Facebook so often that they get addicted to it. Is it possible to become so engaged with online and fantasy worlds that you lose a sense of perspective on real life? Well, this research will find out all about it and answer their questions.
Teenagers are becoming so addicted to texting and surfing the net that they behave like recovering drug addicts when forced to switch their gadgets off, alarming research has found as reported in The Daily Mirror (London, England) They spent more than five hours on the computer and four of which are spent chatting on Facebook nowadays. Some teenagers even chat with their friends online more than talking to their parents. The National Parents' Council director Catherine Riordan once said that she was sure the average teenager would struggle if forced to live without their technology.
Due to the advancing high technology, people use smart phone more often and some parents even buy their child a smart phone. This helps their child to chat with their friends online with a portable device at almost anytime, anywhere.
I am sure that when the reason is revealed, parents will know what to do to prevent their child from using Facebook.
(214 words)
.
1. Framing your research topic
a. Problems in getting the results
- There may be all kinds of answers from the interviewers as there is no exact reason to this question.
- The interviewers may not want to tell the reason as they want to have some privacy.
- The interviewers might not also know the reasons as they might just say they feel like chatting with their friends.
b. Some solutions
- Their parents spent too little time with their child, so they chat with their friends.
- There is no one at home, so they feel lonely and start chatting with their friends.
- Some of them are in a relationship with friends of the opposite gender, so they like to chat together on Facebook.
2. Reasons for choice of topic:
a. I want to research on this topic as I find that many of my friends are extremely addicted in chatting on Facebook and their parents can do nothing about it.
b. It helps me by making me interested in this topic and has the motivation to help them solve their problems. Most importantly, this can help parents and teenagers all over the world solve their problems of getting addicted to chatting on Facebook.
c. (iii) This topic can help teenagers all over the world to solve their problems of getting addicted to chatting on Facebook. Most importantly, their parents will also know what to do to stop them from being addicted.
3. Feasibility for my topic
a. I think that my project is necessary as many of the people worldwide want to know the answer as this case of addiction happens frequently.
b. It is possible to complete this project. All I need is the truthful answers from the interviewers and good resource from the internet.
c. It is very logical and realistic. I don’t need any mass contributions or political supports to do this research.
d. This project can provide sufficient opportunity to students as they can help to brainstorm reasons and to help ask the interviewers for their opinions.
4. Manageability of the project
a. The writing, surveying and researching will be divided equally to my group members. During RE periods, we can also stay back and discuss what have we done and what we should do now. Most importantly, we will find time and analysis the results of our research and put everything in a systematic order.
b. We will have time to sit together and discuss our progress and status. This will give us plenty of opportunities to do group work together and cooperate with one another.
c. I will have trouble like not finishing the project within the deadline or some group members have problems with what they should do. I will ask my group to work as a team and together we will overcome the difficulties and challenges. ‘One for all, all for one’!
5. Accessibility of the information required
a. I will need information on Facebook and survey result on the time teenagers spent chatting on Facebook. I also need to know what teenagers chat about normally in order to get the results. These can normally be found in Journals or newspapers articles.
b. I will obtain this kind of information from primary sources. As these kinds of information are very important to the project, I cannot afford to have mistakes in them. So, I will not take this information from secondary sources.
c. If this doesn’t work, I will have to put more effort in surveying teenagers about their opinions and reasons.
d. I have anticipated problems such as the interviewers want to have privacy. Some writers could also be bias and write articles that benefit him/her.
REFERENCES
Ahmed-Ullah, Noreen S. (2010, March 10). 'parent universities' help deal with the modern teen. Chicago Tribune, p. 1.
From: https://discovery.ri.edu.sg/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_45_1
CHI-LOONG, CHAN. (2010, Feburary 17). Managing kids on the internet . The Straits Times, pp. 10,11
From: http://newslink.asiaone.com/user/OrderArticleRequest.action?order=&_sourcePage=%2FWEB-INF%2Fjsp%2Fuser%2Fsearch_type_result.jsp&month=02&year=2010&date=17&docLanguage=en&documentId=nica_ST_2010_14949568
LING KAI, GAN. (2010, December 19). Lost at night in cyber space . The New Paper, p. 10.
From: http://newslink.asiaone.com/user/OrderArticleRequest.action?order=&_sourcePage=%2FWEB-INF%2Fjsp%2Fuser%2Fsearch_type_result.jsp&month=12&year=2010&date=19&docLanguage=en&documentId=nica_NP_2010_18570059
Appendix 1
Managing kids on the Internet
Keeping your children safe in cyberspace has never been more challenging. Experts fill CHAN CHI-LOONG in on the principles of online safety
KEEPING your kids from going on the Internet is like fighting a losing game because of today's wired lifestyles.
However, regulating Internet usage in a draconian fashion will not do either.
The best way, said experts at a panel discussion on Internet And Children, is to teach them the principles of online safety.
Held on Feb 5, the group of technology and education professionals – all parents themselves – met an audience keen to pick up parenting tips and learn about privacy issues and Internet addiction.
The event was hosted by the Singapore Computer Society and Digital Life.
The only thing that everybody agreed on was that blocking kids from the Internet is going to be increasingly difficult.
"I'm trying my best to delay giving my kids mobile phones and Facebook accounts," said Oo Gin Lee, deputy editor of Digital Life, who is concerned about keeping them away from the dangers of the Internet.
"But we can't keep them away from it forever."
Fact supports intuition.
According to the 2008 annual survey by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore, 96 per cent of children aged 7 to 14 have accessed the Internet at least once in 12 months, and 76 per cent of Singapore households have access to the Internet. The trend of more children accessing the Internet seems unstoppable. Both numbers have been growing every year since 2003 when IDA started the survey.
Thomas Chong, director of the Early Child Institute, PAP Community Foundation, summed up the need to manage and not run from this issue: "The Internet is a double-edged sword. It can either be a good servant or a terrible master."
Below are four tips from the panel's discussion.
1 Get your feet wet
This is the best way to defuse fear.
"If you don't try, you won't know," said Thomas. Given that cyberspace has made our world smaller, it becomes necessary for parents to learn about the Internet.
One audience member, a professor from the Nanyang Technological University, told an amusing story of how his grandmother, in her 90s, set up a date for him by going to his Facebook profile to get his photograph and e-mail.
2 Earn your kids' trust early
It is best to build up trust when the kids are young, said Angie Chew Monksfield, an adjunct associate professor at the Singapore Management University, who teaches planning and portfolio management in the information systems division.
This way, children will respect the boundaries you have laid even when they are teenagers.
Said Angie: "You can prevent them from going on the Internet at home but they can always go to a friend's house or a cafe."
The trick is to give them room to explore, yet remain vigilant of potential dangers.
Said Gin Lee: "To gain their trust and to be treated like their peer, parents should learn and experience the latest apps with their children."
3 Inculcate self-discipline
Angeline Khoo, associate professor of psychological studies at the National Institute of Education, noted that kids should learn to have self-discipline and regulate their own Internet use.
This boils down to inculcating the right values. Easier said than done, audience members hotly pointed out.
Go back to basics and start young, said the panellists. They suggested parents could get an older sibling to mentor a younger child on which sites to avoid.
Another way is to place the computers in the living room so that adults can keep an eye on the websites children are visiting.
4 Teach kids to guard their privacy
The line between what is private – and should be kept "offline" – and what can be said or made public online is blurring, Jonathan Wong, a technology evangelist at Microsoft, said.
The reason: Youth, caught up with living and playing online, do not realise the implications of revealing too much information. For example, when people shoot videos of themselves in various stages of undress and post the clips online.
The clips can come back to haunt them, as in the case of a former Singapore air-stewardess whose video clip of her having sex was posted online and was reported in the media two weeks ago.
Youths should also guard against posting false information of themselves to portray a different persona. Doing so could get them into trouble as they need to spin bigger webs of deceit to keep up with that image, only to have the webs unravel at some point.
I'm trying my best to delay giving my kids mobile phones and Facebook accounts. But we can't keep them away from it forever.
Oo Gin Lee, deputy editor of Digital Life, who is concerned about keeping his children away from the dangers of the Internet
The panellists (from left)
Angeline Khoo, associate professor of psychological studies, National Institute of Education
Thomas Chong, director of the Early Child Institute, PAP Community Foundation
Oo Gin Lee, deputy editor, Digital Life
Angie Chew Monksfield, adjunct associate professor of planning and portfolio management, Information Systems Division, Singapore Management University
Jonathan Wong, technology evangelist, Microsoft
Moderator: Grace Chng, editor, Digital Life (not in picture)
Appendix 2
Lost at night in cyber space
When the lights are off, many students continue their social life online, affecting their studies and life in the real world
ganlk@sph.com.sg
ARE some Singaporean youth and children becoming nocturnal creatures of cyberspace?
Daytime for them is usually spent on classes and co-curricular activities.
But when nightfall comes, their social life takes over. And it can stretch into the wee hours. They play computer games, blog, chat online and update their profiles on social networking sites.
That's what several counsellors, teachers, parents and teenagers told The New Paper on Sunday.
Mr Alfred Tan, 52, executive director of the Singapore Children's Society, believes that computer addiction for youth is becoming more serious in recent years.
And we need to find out what captivates the minds of our youth, he said.
The society is planning to conduct a survey early next year to understand how teenagers between the age of 13 and 17 spend their time after school hours.
The last time the society conducted a similar study was in 1996.
The figures for pathological video gamers here are alarming.
A recent survey by the Ministry of Education and the Media Development Authority showed that nearly nine per cent of the 3,000 students surveyed here are considered "pathological gamers".
This could lead to a host of other social problems. (See report on facing page.)
One 17-year-old junior college student, who wishes to be known only as Jun.
Every day, this junior college student indulges in multi-player online role-playing games, such as CounterStrike, from late afternoon till after 10pm.
Hardly anything, other than dinner and updating his Facebook account, interrupts his gaming activities.
He said he spends an average of 7 hours a day on gaming, and he hardly makes time to study.
But the "wake-up call" for this self-confessed gaming addict came when he got his results for examinations last month – he failed all four of his core subjects.
"When school reopens, I will study in the library. I need to stay away from my computer," Jun told us last Friday.
Dr Thomas Lee, the chief of the Addiction Medicine Department of the Institute of Mental Health, said that cyber or gaming addicts often neglect basic needs and responsibilities, such as personal hygiene, meals, sleep, relationships and attendance in school or social functions.
"Some of them have more virtual pals than real-world friends," Dr Lee added.
Immersed in fantasy world
A secondary school teacher in his 30s, who wanted to be known only as Mr Tan, said that at least five of the 30 students in his Normal Technical class are "glued to the computer".
"Once they are immersed in the fantasy world, they lose interest in schoolwork."
Mr Tan said school counsellors meet these students weekly to help them break the addiction.
Another teacher, in her 20s, who wanted to be known only as Anna, said: "Many students have smartphones and they can log on all day to update their Facebook and Twitter accounts..."
Anna, who is teaching in a school which offers the Integrated Programme, said: "Some fall asleep in class because they use the computers till the wee hours at home.
"Even if their parents can't be with them physically all the time, they should at least know what their children are up to."
A spokesman from Touch Cyber Wellness – an agency that counsels people with pathological gaming behaviour – said parents should establish rules for their children's online activities so that studies and health are not affected.
Prudent parents
Mrs Sam Ran Pereira, 51, a public relations consultant, is one such prudent parent.
She insisted that her daughter use the computer in the living room till the age of 11.
"My husband and I wanted to make sure she doesn't use foul language or post any group pictures of her friends, who may be posing sexily, online.
"It's a given that parents should teach their children good manners. Now, we must also educate them on cyberspace usage and etiquette."
Since last year, Mrs Pereira has allowed her daughter, now 13, to use her computer in her bedroom.
"When there is trust, we don't have to police strictly," Mrs Pereira said.
Another parent, Mr Yeh Kek Kwong, a 56-year-old shop assistant, agrees.
"There's no point in shouting at the kids. We can only reason with them," he said.
His son Yuze used to spend seven hours daily playing computer games, and scored mostly Cs and Ds in his first year in his polytechnic course.
"But I got my wake-up call in my second year," said Yuze, now a 22-year-old interior architecture designer.
Yuze went on to become one of the top students in his course. He graduated from Temasek Polytechnic two years ago with a GPA of 3.34.
But experts also say that youths being active online may not necessarily be a bad thing.
Said Dr Lee: "Teenagers can use online platforms to reinforce existing relationships. Puzzles and strategy games help kids pick up problem-solving skills.
"It's all about moderation."
Said Yuze: "It's all right to spend time on the computer. A student just has to understand that he has to finish his work first."
For more information on computer addiction:
National Addictions Management Service: 6732 6837
Touch Cyber Wellness: 6273 5568
"Some fall asleep in class because they use the computers till the wee hours at home. Even if their parents can't be with them physically all the time, they should at least know what their children are up to."
– Anna, a teacher from a school which offers the Intergrated Programme