“Just five more minutes!” Those are the famous five minutes that never obey the household timer. In a Paris home, a 14-year-old boy is glued to his mobile phone. His mother shouts, “The food is getting cold!” His father, half angry and half pleading, says, “Put the phone down.” The boy turns around and says, “Dad, this is the last video."

Competitive anxiety about their child falling behind means parents are more willing to pay for AI tools, finds new research by the University of Cologne.

Ah, summer vacation! Those two words once carried the fragrant romance of freedom. For children who grew up in India thirty or forty years ago, summer holidays were not just dates on a calendar. They were the most eagerly awaited season of the year. The final school bell did not merely mark the end of classes; it felt like the gates of a prison swinging open.

Our cities are expanding. Buildings scrape the sky. Cars gleam. Bank balances rise. Yet something essential is shrinking: our hearts. The question before us is simple. Does progress mean only wealth, status, and visibility? Or do courtesy, humility, and humanity matter just as much?

​After a long time, I had an opportunity to go to my school to meet someone. Since there was time before the bell, I thought I’d take a round. As I turned the corner, I saw 7–8 kids in the dazzling corridor of an elite school, and the language they were using made my ears go numb. Gen Z’s fast, chopped-up, emoji-dripping tongue… and in every sentence, a four-letter firecracker.

What began as routine questioning of a 16-year-old girl by teachers at a prestigious city school has snowballed into a digital-age nightmare, exposing the dark underbelly of student social media use.

The Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana stands as a ray of hope and empowerment for millions of young girls across India.

Research from the family locator app and safety membership platform Life360 has revealed the top benefits that parents of kids 13 and under see from mobile ownership alongside the rules that they put in place to encourage healthy and safe smartphone habits.

​The rise of technology has taken over everything today. And, coding is the core of technology. It is a creative process where you make something from scratch. For kids, it’s the difference between knowing how to navigate a website or play a game and building a website or game on their own.

If you can’t remember the last time you saw a teenager reading a book, newspaper or magazine, you’re not alone. In recent years, less than 20 per cent of teens report reading a book, magazine or newspaper daily for pleasure, while more than 80 per cent say they use social media every day, according to research. To get full access to this story, "Subscribe Now", in just Re.1 for the next 24 hours.