Ban social media for children under 15 – NUGS
The President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Rashid Ibrahim, has proposed a ban on social media use by children under 15 to help address growing indiscipline and strengthen moral development among young people.
According to him, excessive and unregulated access to social media is exposing children to behaviours that could negatively influence their character and values.
Mr Ibrahim, a legal practitioner, said Ghana could consider measures similar to those adopted in countries such as Australia, France and Indonesia, arguing that limiting social media access at an early age could help parents and schools shape children’s behaviour.
He made the proposal at the fourth Muslim Leaders and Catholic Bishops Meeting Dialogue, held under the theme, “Addressing the Challenges of Rising Indiscipline in Our Schools: The Role of Faith-Based Organisations.”
Mr Ibrahim also attributed the growing cases of indiscipline in schools partly to inadequate parental supervision and weak monitoring within educational institutions.
He stressed the need for children to understand that misconduct comes with consequences, calling for appropriate sanctions to be applied to juveniles who violate established rules and regulations.
Meanwhile, the Commission Secretary of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Lucille Hewlett Annan, urged parents to make the upbringing and welfare of their children a priority when making decisions about their lives.
She noted that raising children requires significant financial, emotional and time commitments, and therefore urged parents to devote adequate resources to their development.
“Taking care of children requires money. It requires time, it requires a lot of resources, and it requires prayers,” she said.
For his part, Senior Lecturer and Lead Convener of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Ghana, Dr Haruna Zagoon-Sayeed, called for greater government support for faith-based organisations to strengthen moral and character education in schools.
He questioned how schools with large student populations could effectively provide moral guidance when they had limited numbers of chaplains.
“Imagine a school with 2,000 students and you have one chaplain who should be able to give the moral education that we expect. Children will not misbehave if they don’t see misbehaviour in their environment,” he said.
Also speaking at the dialogue, Associate Professor at the University of Ghana, Very Reverend Father Cosmos Ebo Sabah, called for greater authority and responsibility to be given to educators to enforce discipline in schools.
He argued that the education system had placed too much emphasis on academic and intellectual achievement while giving insufficient attention to the moral formation of students.
