Cade Lucas
When students at Werribee’s Corpus Christi Primary School return to class later this month, refocussing their attention from summertime to studying will hopefully be easier than in the past.
With the internet and mobile phones providing a constant source of distraction, Corpus Christi last year ran the Control the Scroll program aimed at regulating online use and avoiding internet addiction.
“I started Corpus Christi in early 2023 teaching movement, mindfulness and mediation and facilitating conversation between children about internet addiction,” said Control the Scroll program instructor and yoga teacher Jane Johnston.
“The science shows it shrinks the brain, but there’s also science which shows that meditation and movement help to create healthy neural pathways which in effect helps to grow the brain.”
Corpus Christi principal Linda Roynic said parents had long been expressing concern about the amount of time their kids spent online, but that it was after a conversation with a friend that she came across Ms Johnston and Control the Scroll.
“He connected me with Jane who was doing work in this space,” Ms Roynic said.
“She’s a yoga teacher but the part I was interested in was the balanced kids part and balancing what kids do in life. I really like the focus on controlling the scroll and stopping the internet from becoming something that controls you and taking the control back.”
To do this students were given guidelines to manage their internet use.
“90 minutes a day maximum gaming for under 18’s and two 30 minute blocks a day for under 13’s, said Ms Johnston adding, “this is for gaming and scrolling not for doing work on the internet.”
Beyond guidelines, mediating and mindfulness, Ms Roynic said the value of Control the Scroll was just in starting a conversation over healthy internet use.
“Some parents have said that even at home students will say ‘oh dad you’ve been online too long’. It’s opening conversations about time spent online which is a real positive.”
Control the Scroll was held across all year levels in 2023, but with the Corpus Christi committed to other cyber safety programs for 2024 , the arrangements this year will be more sporadic.
“We don’t want to lose what we’ve started,” said Ms Roynic.
“They will have some contact this year again to review what was covered last year and deepen some of their learning.”
