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Indonesian Officials Hope Pets Will Distract Children From Phones

Published November 27, 2019 at 6:59 AM EST

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. If you want kids to spend less time staring at phones, find them something else to do. Officials in West Java, Indonesia, came up with a plan - they distributed 2,000 pet chicks to elementary and middle schools. Now kids can swap Angry Birds for baby birds, Twitter for tweets. Officials hope caring for the pets will instill a sense of responsibility. And if the chicks survive, the kids can post their pictures on Instagram. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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