Families are being urged to a take a 24-hour break from all smart devices today.
The annual 'CyberBreak' encourages people to put away their phones, tablets, computers and games consoles from 5pm this evening until 5pm tomorrow.
Internet safety charity CyberSafeKids, which is behind the initiative, said a recent survey it conducted shows that school children acknowledge that their use of social media and online gaming is excessive, but need help to learn how to switch off.
The study found that two-thirds of secondary school-aged students and half of primary school-aged children feel that they spend too much time online.
According to the survey of 5,000 primary and secondary school-aged students, one third of all children said they found it hard to switch off from games and apps.
The research also found that secondary school-aged girls, where social media is the dominant online activity, had a higher incidence than boys of experiencing negative feelings when they spend time online.
"Children of all ages need help in managing their digital health and wellbeing and taking a break as a family to reassess or reset the balance between our online and offline lives is exactly what our CyberBreak initiative is all about," said Alex Cooney, CEO, CyberSafeKids.
"Adults find it just as hard to "switch-off" from the online world as children do but we need to teach children from an early age how important it is to find a healthy balance between their online and offline lives and to help them understand how addictive some of the apps and games they're using really are," Ms Cooney said.
