N. Raghuraman's column: The poison of the app will come down from the app itself.

Imagine that your child studying in 10th or 12th grade enters a reputed school. The large QR code on the gate scans the posters with a mobile and goes to the class. Teachers in the classroom are happy because no child is glued to the mobile. In lunch, the children are talking to each other, having fun, and in this fun, the cellphone is nowhere to be seen. In rhesus, if they want to talk to their parents, they go to the designated place with permission and call them. Ever since you put the child in this school, he habitually does not reach for his mobile. They're sleeping well. All of a sudden, his numbers started coming in. Not only did this change the atmosphere on campus, but your child also became calmer, less irritable, and less stubborn. Apart from calling you, none of them saw the mobile even once during school hours. Interestingly, even attractive apps like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, X, Discord, Pokémon Go, Threads, Reddit, Roblox and Clash Royale could not attract children to mobile. Wondering how? If you're thinking that maybe the school is using a magnetic pouch that locks phones, you're wrong. Do you remember that while entering the school, the children scanned the QR code with a mobile camera. The magic was hidden there. This app not only provides attendance, but as soon as the child scans the QR code – it blocks social media and gaming apps. Don't boast that your child can disable any restrictions. Because as soon as a student disables the app, its information reaches the school authorities on the dashboard in real time. Now the question arises as to what is this app and which school is using it for such positive results. So welcome to the Harvard-Westlake School. It is a prestigious, independent, and co-educational college-preparatory day school from 7th to 12th grade in Los Angeles, California. Known for its stringent academic standards, strong sports culture and alumni, the school aims to inculcate integrity, excellence and purpose in its students. The school uses the 'Opal' app. It was created by Kenneth Schlenker in 2020 as a screen time management app to help people focus better by adding 'productive friction' to their digital experience. Kenneth was inspired by this while working at Google. When the school emailed Kenneth asking if the company had a product for educators, he thought he could upgrade the product to make it ready for the school as well. The school asked student council members to use the app last year. Since the feedback was positive, the company created a paid version called 'Opal for Schools', in which the administrators were also given a dashboard to enforce the rules. The Opal app does not allow schools to view student activity within the app to protect student interests. The dashboard is designed to resemble an attendance sheet, showing the student's log in, log out and see if he or she has tampered with the school's block settings. Students are also feeling better, as instead of snatching the phone completely or locking it in a magnetic pouch, they are learning to manage distractions on their own. Most schools also want the middle ground to keep the phones with the students but not to be distracted. That's why the company has created a paid feature, which costs $ 20 per student per year. The trick is that just as an iron cuts an iron, the app will cut the app. Can we develop a similar app for Indian schools?