Slovak children can't imagine their lives without the internet, and their parents are ignoring the symptoms of addiction, reads an analysis published by the Public Affairs Institute (IVO) on Thursday. According to the analysis, modern technologies have become a part of children's daily lives. While 85 percent of children can go without computers, mobile phones and the internet only for a couple of days, a third of them also said [sometimes in a rather contradictory manner - ed. note] that they can't imagine their life without them at all. Children communicate, create their own identity and spend their free time on social networks. They come across risks they can't identify, however, and so become a vulnerable group. Parents know that their children are spending time on the internet, but as many as third of them don't know what their children are actually doing online, noted Marián Velšic from IVO. Velšic added that one of the most striking findings is that as many as half of children think that their contemporaries are addicted to the internet, but as many as two thirds of parents haven't noticed such addiction. "A large number of children are addicted to modern information technologies - computers, tablets, and smartphones. As many as 60 percent of children in the study use these devices on a daily basis and another 20 percent use them four or five times a week. That's quite a high number," noted Velšic. Symptoms of addiction are shown by a lack of concentration, problems in school, insomnia, loss of appetite, and parents don't usually react, added Velšic.

Christopher George, Photo: AP/SITA