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The Gujarat government on Thursday said it will introduce guidelines restricting the use of mobile phones and social media for children, underscoring that too much screen time is not good for them. The aim is to keep the kids away from the devices and bring them to playgrounds and study tables, State Minister of Education Prafful Panseriya told reporters. The guidelines will be brought out after consulting experts, he said. We had earlier issued a government resolution banning mobile phones (for children) in primary schools. That resolution will be strictly followed from now on, he said. Teachers, students and parents will be made aware of the guidelines and the state will promote the initiative as a campaign, the minister said. Recently, Australia banned the use of social media for children aged under 16. The central government also plans to incorporate parental controls for data usage instead of a blanket ban on mobile phones for children under 18.
The impact of mobile phone service tariff hike was evident in July with Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea reporting loss of customer base, which resulted in an overall decline in telecom subscribers in the country. Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea increased their mobile service plan rates in the range of 10-27 per cent in the first week of July. Airtel and Vodafone Idea have more than doubled their entry-level mobile rates in the last 2-3 years to Rs 199 that comes with 28 days validity. State-run BSNL was the only player that added new subscribers and led the market in terms of new net customer addition, according to a monthly subscribers report released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Friday. According to the report, BSNL added over 2.94 million mobile subscribers in July. Bharti Airtel lost 1.69 million mobile subscribers which was highest among its peers. Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio lost 1.41 million and 758 thousands mobile subscribers