It can’t. Sorry. Let me explain.

Online abuse has increased by huge figures. The National Institute for Mental Health and Neuro Sciences’ (NIMHANS) Service for the Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) Clinic continues to make headlines for what the lockdown has thrown up. And the effect cannot be cured by a course of pills or antibiotics.

So if your child’s school gives in to pressure and starts online classes, don’t celebrate – know that you are only entering a new battlefield, one that is often dark, formless, and incognito. It is not going to educate your child as you imagine. It’s only going to keep them busy, at best. Education is more than transferring information. Schools are spaces where children learn to navigate life, deal with bossy children other than family, check what they believe, learn boundaries, figure out social acceptance, test out their own thoughts, and so much more.

They learn collaboration (even in their stingy 10-minute breaks), and accepting other people’s food choices in their lunch break, they strengthen their limbs and work their cores when they run around corridors, learn to act and fake pain or injury when a disciplinarian arrives. These are all lessons. Testing your ideas against your teachers, the consequence of disobedience or being slack – all this and more is what they do at school. It’s not just integers and organic compounds.

Stories of online classes gone wrong are abundant – hackers who enter a room and give lessons on suicide, pornographic content splashed into a classroom lesson, naked people entering a classroom, you have it all. And these images are hard to unsee. It pierces through your life like a bullet and leaves about as much impact. Ever seen the gory picture of the spot the bullet exited its target? Same.

The thing with the internet is there is very little accountability. Even friends will take liberties. It seems like there’s no consequence for the offender.

I’ve heard of school children drawing suggestive pictures for the whole class to see (since they can share their screen). Well-meaning fathers trying to help (presumably) their children set up their class, while flashing the entire group as they do. Why, even the Brazilian president got to see a man ‘accidentally’ appear naked on a Zoom call. His reaction? “Unfortunately we saw… it was a shaky picture, but we saw.” It’s the only incident of this kind that has made me laugh.

I was at a call recently that focused on challenges to education. The big man spoke about how parents needed to supervise only when the children were doing homework, and do their own work while the teacher was teaching. I had to go suicidal and call him out right there. How is it safe? I’ve heard of a class call where a smiling student was asked a question by the teacher. He did not respond even to his own name, but continued to smile, looking into the screen. Students around giggled, knowing he was on a different window and not one bit focused on class. But the teacher had no idea. She thought the “net was down” for him.

And that’s the other thing, largely. The younger you are – the more tech savvy. So when it comes to policing, a student would do the job more effectively than the teacher. Which means, your child can fool the teacher and he wouldn’t even know! The child will get an education online for sure, but not exactly the one you are paying for.

You need to be around. There is no undoing parenting blunders, especially in the formative years. Investments and accomplishments, holidays and promotions will all seem ridiculous when you have a broken child before you.

If you seek purpose at this tough time, read up on being an empathetic parent.

Nothing else matters.