Though the Internet is a great medium through for the children for their educational and overall growth, their access to the web world has to be checked. It is noticed that when unobserved, children are vulnerable to the trap of porn websites and strangers on the social networking websites. Some children even meet their strange friends face-to-face without the knowledge of their parents or friends. It is high time the government should think about introducing strict laws and guidelines to regulate the use of Internet by children. Other than the government, it is the duty of the parents all over the world to keep a check on websites their child visits often.
Internet has become a popular entertainment and social networking medium. Not only the adults, but also the children of five or more years of age have started browsing the web. The Internet is a marvelous source for kids who want to seek help for tricky homework questions and relax by playing games, films, watching films and want to download some good music and cool stuff. The parents all over the world are buying computers to help their children with homework, gaming and just fun. But all the same, Internet is a tool that can be used for both good and bad purposes. The worry is that when the children surf the net unobserved in the closed walls of their room for long hours, chances are that other than the study websites, they visit the websites, which they should not. Their time spent on encyclopedia or research for homework can be less than the time spent in messaging friends, using chat rooms and even surfing porn.
The concern in a child’s surfing online networking website is that a child’s mind is very susceptible. They are too innocent to understand the true colors of a stranger. They may trust blindly a new and cool friend on the Internet and give out some sensitive details about themselves or their family. Social networking is not safe for young children and watching porn is a complete no-no. It is high time that parents exercise full control on their children while surfing Internet. the us government has to regulate the use of the Internet for the child surfers. There has to be some ways to ensure that the children are exploring the Internet in a secure and well-controlled environment.
The need for regulation on the use of Internet by children
There is a lot of corrupt, immoral material available on the Internet that can attract any child who may come across it while surfing even an encyclopedia. Though the child may not access pornography out of his or her own, but can get suggestions from others in school or outside or can get links while surfing the web as online pornography is widely and easily available. One such practice that is unfortunately becoming common on the web world today is known as pornopreneur. It is the practice of leaving teaser and sexually implicit images on several websites to entice new visitors.
If a child surfs the Internet in an unrestricted and unobserved fashion, he or she may unintentionally land up on such sites. Porn is so addictive for the children that once they start coming across such deprave material, they may soon start deliberately looking for it. The computer literate and Internet savvy children are falling in the trap of adult and hardcore pornography, which might include pictures of couples having sex, gay or lesbian images and even the images of sexual violence and rape of women.
The porn websites can also victimize the children by opening a strange e-mail that carries commercial advertisements. Spammers, who may get the email addresses in several ways, send these e-mails. The purpose of such messages is to get more traffic on their websites by advertising pornography. The child may open a general but strange e-mail and can get direct link to porno websites. The problem is that not all the parents are comfortable with Internet or use it in daily routine. They even do not discuss the use of Internet in general discussions.
The other avenue on the Internet that can bring trouble for a little and innocent child is social networking website. The use of social networking websites is growing widely among children, who use it to stay connected with their school friends after school and making new friends for sheer fun and excitement. Though the children get lessons from their parents to not to talk to strangers in a public place without their permission, there is no such instruction while surfing making new friends on the Internet. They make new friends and start sharing their personal information with the strangers. Sometimes they become so emotionally attached with these strangers that they begin sharing their pictures with them. Gradually, some of them meet these strangers without the knowledge of their parents or even friends. In a study over some 200 young people, the experts found out that about half of them have face-to-face met their online friends.
The children are becoming pray to online victimization, for example being cyber-bullied or being the target of sexual interest. Some experts believe that sharing personal information with the strangers does not necessarily increase the chances of online victimization of children. However, when strangers provoke online behavior of children such discussing sex and sharing objectionable information with them, it can be embarrassing for the children. The child’s behavior on a social networking website, when they communicate freely with strangers and gradually indulge in active discussion on sex, this exposes them to online predators. They then make virtual entrance in a child’s life, make them more converse in discussion and encourage them to post sexually provocative videos or pictures in their profiles.
Conclusion
There is no doubt about the fact that the Internet is a fantastic tool for the educational and complete development of a child in today’s world. It is the medium to access information fast and easily from one’s home. But all the same, the Internet can be dangerous for the innocent children if the parents are not watchful and the government has not controlled the websites that are not fit for the kids. Technology is important to bring refined filters that can bring a check on the adult or porn websites. It is the responsibility of the government to introduce hard laws to practice some restraint on the Internet. More than the government, it is important for the parents to keep informed what exactly their children do on the Internet. If they find something objectionable, it is time to confront, convince and educate the child.
1 Comment
June 23, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Heya, you raised a valid point!! Great going…