A request - 5 minutes of your time for a survey on children and social media

[Raj Shekhar]

Dear all,

I am collecting primary data on the impact of social media on children in India, and I would be grateful for five minutes of your time.

The reason for doing this is straightforward. Almost everything cited in the Indian debate on this subject comes from studies conducted in Australia, the United Kingdom or the United States. There is very little Indian evidence on the questions that actually matter here — at what age children open their first account, how much of the day it takes, what they encounter there, and how much of it the adults around them can see. I am trying to close some of that gap, and I intend to place the findings in the public domain.

There are four questionnaires. Please respond to the one that applies to you.

Parents and guardians
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScmKhlXUYg6vq4LbyzflHJSOJnt0-clG3om7ptWsPoQNHNGiA/viewform

For children and teenagers
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfU3-s13gyaWKzLVzScZUBtSwhhfxaGDBlNfhocVvJsnlPkcA/viewform

For anyone who sees children regularly but is not their parent — elder siblings, cousins, teachers, neighbours
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe-J-YKjv96_A5vx-Gm1KEaHw7IaICjNE0wgU0q1VvEU0ZgBA/viewform

For doctors, psychologists, counsellors, teachers and principals
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeplQS6_xAFuhHR0XT3EOsREz33Z4T67pFeB30-8tDsuoxhXg/viewform

If you have children of your own, please fill the parents' form, and then do take a little time to pass the second link on to your child so they can answer it themselves. That pairing is the most useful thing anyone can give this survey. Asking the same questions of a parent and of their child, separately, is the only way to establish the gap between what children actually experience online and what their parents believe they experience. No amount of secondary research supplies that.

One request on the child's form: please let them fill it on their own rather than alongside you. A child answering questions about unwanted contact or content they have seen will answer differently with a parent watching, and it is precisely those answers that carry the most weight.

Do also forward this to family and professional groups. The findings only mean something if the sample is wide enough.

Thank you,

Raj Shekhar