Children of Classes II, III or V can now navigate through shopping apps or order food online, said teachers and parents.
Children copy their parents and with most adults doing online shopping, children pick up the habit from them.
They possess their personal devices or have access to those of their parents.
“In some homes, it is need-based. When parents are at work, they leave their passwords with the child so he or she can order food if the cook doesn’t turn up,” said the principal of a school.
But teachers are warning of dangers posed by the online world and urging parents to closely monitor their children’s online activities.
“Most adults are doing online shopping and so children have learnt it seeing them. There are some children who can navigate through shopping apps and make online purchases using their parents’ e-wallets. Most parents do not log out of the shopping apps making it easy for the children to access them,” said Suman Sood, director, BD Memorial Junior School, and national core committee member of the Early Childhood Association, a forum of preschools.
Sood said most children find online shopping apps attractive. Many of them keep placing orders out of curiosity and randomly, without realising what they are doing.
A schoolteacher narrated the reponse of a Class III child when her grandmother asked her what gift she wanted on her birthday. Instead of giving an answer, the child sent her grandmother screenshots of the items that she wanted as gifts.
“The little girl used her mother’s phone to create the screenshots from various shopping apps,” the teacher said.
A Class I child browsed a shopping app and put things in the cart before asking her mother to order what she had selected.
“This generation is more used to seeing parents doing online shopping rather than picking up things physically from the market. It is natural for them to pick up the habit (of online shopping),” said a teacher of a primary school.
Teachers feel that sometimes such access becomes “need-based,” in a nuclear family set-up.
“Children have to order food online if the cook does not turn up and the parents are at work. Parents in such cases share passwords of their devices and card details with the children,” said Seema Sapru, principal, The Heritage School.
“But the danger is when children start taking advantage of such access. 10 per cent of the children are responsible enough to do online shopping when required. The remaining 90 per cent are tempted to do it more often,” said Sapru.
Teachers warn parents against gloating over the fact that their little ones are faster than them in online activities. “We see parents boast that their children can order online or book a cab. Parents feel it is a life-skill that they are picking up. But booking an app cab is not a life-skill. Being able to commute by public transport if you do not have access to a personal vehicle is a life-skill. That is what we need to teach our children,” said Satabdi Bhattacharjee, principal, South City International High School.
Nupur Ghosh, vice-principal of Mahadevi Birla World Academy, said “online shopping is self-starting”.
“Parents often shop online in front of their children because of paucity of space at home.... It is important that the adults keep their devices password-protected,” Ghosh said.