Topic of the month in April by Uncle Joe: advice for parents to support their children’s distance learning

Published: 2 April 2020

The Gyerekaneten.hu website of the NMHH, providing information to parents about Internet-related issues, will focus on distance learning in April. The website was launched one month ago, and it has already become popular, with almost 280 thousand page views. The slang vocabulary is regularly updated, new quizzes are available, and new vocabulary entries also help parents cope with the sudden #stayathome scenario.

A new monthly topic has been published for parents in the vocabulary section of the Gyerekaneten.hu website operated by the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH). József Balatoni (aka Uncle Joe), a popular teacher of history and an expert of the School of Responsible Parents (Felelős Szülők Iskolája) summarised his experience of the rapidly introduced distance learning system and also gave some tips for survival to parents. The quiz corresponding to the topic of the month focuses on the friendly, positive and supportive terms of Internet-related slang.

Other entries on the website provide assistance for coping with the current extraordinary situation triggered by the epidemic. The section on Parental control provides a list of technical solutions that parents can apply when they are compelled to let their younger children enter the digital space. The list of the most popular Internet filters, available on the website of NMHH, has also been updated. Faced with the context of digital distance learning, parents may find it advisable to reconsider their family rules, for which they can find useful input in the entries about Screen time and Age limit on the Gyerekaneten.hu website. The entries about Fact checks and Fake news suggest useful tools for managing the ever increasing amount of fake news accompanying the epidemic.

Since its launch on 1 March, the Gyerekaneten platform offering information to parents has attracted significant interest: over 80 thousand visitors have already generated almost 280 thousand page views. The most viewed section was the vocabulary, with visitors spending more than 3 minutes on average to browse the slang terms. The content of the website has been partially modified in the first month of its operation, as the child rights ambassadors of the Hintalovon Child Rights Foundation (youngsters aged 14–17 from different regions of Hungary) reviewed all the entries of the slang vocabulary, and upon their suggestions, the editors have deleted some terms, modified the definition and explanations of others, and also added some new terms (from "add" and "map" to "cool").