The Minister of Education is concerned that excessive social media use among children is causing attention deficits. He has made it an urgent priority to resolve this issue, outlining two approaches with the hope that Thai children will become high-quality individuals in the future.
At 09:30 on 26 May 2025 GMT+7 at Government House, Mr. Prasert Chantraruangthong, the Minister of Education, spoke about the issue of children overusing social media, which reduces their ability to focus on any one activity. He said this is a societal concern, and research shows that Thai children spending time watching social media and short videos experience impaired concentration for extended tasks. He emphasized that neither the children nor any platform is to blame; rather, it is a challenge of the digital age. The Ministry of Education considers this an urgent matter requiring action to ensure Thai children develop into quality individuals in the future. The ministry has studied approaches from other countries and found that young children whose brains are still developing need protection, while older children require education on proper digital technology use and AI literacy. These two tasks fall under the ministry's responsibility to both protect young children and enhance knowledge for older ones. He added that he will soon consult relevant agencies with the goal of improving children's concentration and encouraging appropriate social media use.
Mr. Prasert further acknowledged that dangerous media content is present on social platforms and that youth exposure to such content worries the Ministry of Education. Therefore, there is a policy to have school safety centers work alongside student rights protection centers and education personnel to address these concerns in a coordinated way. Moving forward, discussions will focus on platform safety measures, including age restrictions for access.