- Numerous parents across the world believe that children should not have access to the internet. With today’s modern technology and social media advancements, the internet can be the gateway to so many dangerous things
Numerous parents across the world believe that children should not have access to the internet. With today’s modern technology and social media advancements, the internet can be the gateway to so many things. I believe from a personal standpoint dealing with social media and the internet can be extremely intense and can lead to so many other dangerous things.
With the many advancements the internet has undergone it also gives a lot more risk for dangers to happen to these young children. According to the National Center for Education Statistics in 2019 shows that 95% of 3 to 18-year-old children can access the internet. With all the other advancements I would come to believe that the number is still rising. Nowadays children have easier access to more inappropriate content that can potentially pop up on their feed. Apps such as TikTok, Instagram or X have been providing the basis for this inappropriate content. Children can easily see pornography, murders, fighting, use of lingo or bad words and much more.
A major issue with children using the internet is putting them at risk for child predators. This has been a common problem recently and have been trending on the internet where people pretend to be a minor and and lure in predators that are seeking sexual acts from the minor. They get caught and they proceed to get arrested but what if that’s not the case? According to the United States Sentencing Commission, just alone in 2019 84% of the sex offenders cases involved rape. These children get lured into fake profiles, they get groomed into an online relationship where the child believes it made a friend but the predator is seeking other desires.
Another major issue that can be seen by children having access to the internet at such a young age could be the spread of misinformation or even cyber bullying. These different social media apps or the internet can often provide false information which can lead children at a young age to believe certain things that are just not true. They will gravitate to viral trends or influencers and this can have a negative effect on children at a young age.
All these reasons should be taken into consideration when allowing your child to have access to the internet at such a young age. These influences on the young children could cause detrimental effects in the stages of development and growing up. If parents do decide to allow their children to have access to the internet it should be heavily monitored and controlled. Allow access to certain apps and websites that they are able to control. Online safety should be a discussion point in every household with young children to prevent such harsh tragedies from happening.
