Negative Influence of the Internet on Children
The Internet – is one of the most innovative technologies the presence of which is felt in every sphere of our life, be it health care, politics, entertainment, economy, household chores etc. However, the Internet has created dozens of new challenges, especially for children who are extremely vulnerable in their young ages. Judging from the amount of time children spend surfing the Internet and types of activities they are involved into, it is easy to decide if Internet has negative or positive influence on their development. To my mind, the Internet brings some disorders into the behavior of children, their psychological and physical development. Moreover, the Internet negatively affects social life and interpersonal abilities of children.
According to article on The Impact of Home Computer Use on Children’s Activities and Development “most American children have access to the Internet” (Subrahmanyam et al, n.p.) and use it for a variety of activities from playing games to writing e-mails. With increase of the Internet usage among children concern about how it can affect children is also increasing. Usually parents are “disappointed with some of the online activities their children engage in—such as games and browsing the Internet to download lyrics of popular songs and pictures of rock stars” (Subrahmanyam et al, n.p.).
However, generally they view computers positively.On the one hand, I agree that the Internet is a primary educational and developmental tool for many parents and teachers. It enhances the education process, making it more creative, dynamic and up-to-date. The Internet provides children with vast collection of academic resources, allows quick interchange of the information and develops their critical thinking skills since children have to decide on the reliability of sources they use for their research paper, essays etc. “Children who use the computer and the Internet show gains in cognitive abilities such as memory, spatial and logical problem solving” (Osborn Quarshie, n.p.).
On the other hand, content on the Internet is a potential problem for children. Nowadays the Internet is flooded with inappropriate and harmful for children information. For instance, Internet provides children with easy access to the pornography which in its turn can promote irresponsible sex, create false notions in minds of children and lead to sexual deviations or addiction. National survey on exposure to Internet Pornography among Children and Adolescents suggests that the “vast majority (87%) of youth who report looking for sexual images online are 14 years of age or older”. (Ybarra et al, n.p.) This proves that Internet content may result in psychological deviations as children are extremely vulnerable in this age. Similarly, such information that pertains to violence as, for example, on how to make a hand-made bomb or information that spreads hatred can cause target severe psychological disorders in children.Chat rooms could be another threatening factor for children which is available on-line.
As different surveys show, people under the age of 25 is the biggest group who uses the chat room often. Moreover, young …
