The private schools across the Karnataka state have decided to keep an eye on the cyber activities of their students. This move came after the recent reports broke out regarding a death of the final year BA student while performing a TikTok video. The Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) has issued an advisory note to all the schools to keep a hawk eye upon their student’s cyber activities.
It may be recalled that on the fateful day of 13 July this year, a 20 year old student Mala obsessed with taking selfies died while shooting a video for TikTok. This incident occurred at a farm pond in a Vadageri village in Kolar district, 75 kilometers from Bangalore. According to the police sources the girl was allegedly trying to enact a film scene when she met with the accident. The unmanned farm pond, which is about 30ft by 30ft, had not been fenced. Mala had written her final-year BA degree examination a couple of months ago and was eager to take up a job to help her family over the financial crisis. TikTok is becoming a highly popular app amongst the youth used for creating and sharing the videos.
Soon after this incident took place, the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) issued directions to all the schools. KAMS in its advisory note to the school managements has asked the school principals, teachers and headmasters to keep track of their class students not to indulge in the TikTok videos and other vulnerable social media. The KAMS has also adviced to provide awareness that such indulgence can cause harm to one’s life during such practices.
KAMS has adviced the students and parliament committees of schools that incase if anybody is indulging in such an act to bring it to the notice of higher-ups. The association represents over 2,000 schools predominantly in Bangalore. Infact there is also feedback from the school principals that many students in their schools are addicted to TikTok.
Speaking about this move, general secretary of KAMS, D Shashikumar says “The idea behind the initiative is protecting the students from the addiction to the TikTok which is very popular among people of all the age groups. We have asked all the school principals to create awareness in the school assembly beside alerting the parents-guardians on the smartphone addiction of the kids back home.”
According to the department of public instruction (DPI) officials, since the blue whale challenge controversy, the department is issuing alerts to the school heads on a regular basis. “We keep updating the school heads irrespective of whether they are government or private on these issues. Mobile addiction is found among many children even at the primary school level,” explained an officer from DPI.
According to the academicians, allowing the children to get access to the smartphones is a challenge faced by today’s parents and the teachers. “As per the government direction, all the schools are supposed to be mobile free. Teachers using the mobiles in the classroom is also banned. However it is not strictly followed in many schools. In many schools even the children bring the mobiles into the classrooms,” says a teacher working with a private CBSE school of the city.