DIFI Participates in Kazan Global Youth Summit in Tatarstan

Doha: Qatar Foundations Doha International Family Institute (DIFI) partook in the 3rd Kazan Global Youth Summit in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation. The summit highlighted the need to balance technological advancements with the preservation of traditional values in an increasingly globalized world. It has also adopted an action plan to effectively integrate technology into the lives of children and young adults. Moreover, the resolutions from the summit which delved into critical topics around technology and youth policy are set to pave the way for establishing long-term cooperation programs across the countries of the Islamic world, BRICS, and the Asia-Pacific region with the aim to support youth development efforts on a global scale. In this context, Executive Director of DIFI Dr. Sharifa Al Emadi referenced the results of the two studies conducted by the Qatar Foundation (QF) member. The first study, conducted in cooperation with QF initiatives the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) and the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) and QF member, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, was titled "Adolescent Overuse of Digital Technology." The second study, carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Qatar, was titled "Adolescents' Well-being in Qatar." The studies revealed that parents spend an excessive amount of time on electronic devices, averaging 8-10 hours per day, while 29.64 percent of adolescents said they prefer spending their time on the internet rather than engaging with others, including family members. As for parents monitoring of their childrens online activity, 24 percent of them indicated that they regularly monitor their childrens online activity, while 35 percent responded that they often do so. In contrast, 41 percent of parents reported that they rarely monitor their childrens online and social media activities. Dr. Al Emadis presentation on the topic of opportunities and challenges facing families in the digital world called for t he need to enhance and develop work-family balance policies and empower the youth by providing them with economic and training opportunities, which improves their ability to build stable and sustainable families. Source: Qatar News Agency