The Power of the Internet
The Power of the Internet has literally taken over the way society goes on about everyday life. It has impacted on American youth more than anything, but this impact is not necessarily positive. Some sites are educational, while others are filled with sex, drugs, and racist material. "There was a time when kids were safe studying in their bedrooms, but now, if a computer and modem are present, leaving them alone in their bed rooms can be as risky as leaving them alone on a street corner or at a bus station"(Sheppard 1).
The places kids can go on the Internet is imaginable, its possibilities are endless. "The though of adolescent children wandering through big cities where sex shops and schools, strip joint and libraries, triple-X theaters and museums sit side by side, allowing easy and free access, would scare most parents"(Mack 1). "But many set loose their kids in the cyber world, allowing them to roam sex chat rooms, view pornographic pictures and seek other sexually explicit material with little supervision or direction"(Mack 1). Kids can view all of this material with just a click of a button. "Type the word sex into any search engine on the Internet and see how many sites you get back. The words sex and pornography entered on Yahoo revealed one hundred thirty four links to sex-related Web sites"(Mack 1).
"There is a definite risk of children being victimized online, 'says George Trubow, professor of law at John Marshall Law School and director of the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law.' Trubow identifies three significant risks: access to web sites that have information inappropriate for children; being contacted by pedophiles who want sex; and marketers who contac...
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...ace in their rooms to do homework", says Frank Connolloy, of American University. We now encourage families to put the computer in family rooms, the kitchen or other busy areas. This will enable parents to keep an eye on what their children are doing and be available to answer questions. After all, there are those who use the net to prey on children"(Sheppard 3).
The fact of the matter is, that the Internet and the kids of today are the future of tomorrow, without either, the world seems to be going nowhere. The ongoing controversy of the Internet and it's effects on children will not end anytime soon, because the Internet has greatly impacted how children are growing. Though the Internet is filled with many sexual, racial, harmful, and vulgar material, it is filled with positive aspects, and it is up to the children to use these aspects to the fullest extent.
Kids now want to be more independent and have more freedom which might scare some if not most parents. A lot of parents look at the internet as a dangerous tool and not a tool where their kids can have some freedom. Although parents need to realize that they can’t protect their kids from all ...
Online predators, pornography, drug trafficking, piracy, and hate sites are just some of the dangers that a child can face on the internet. The article “The Undercover Parent” by Harlan Coben states that parents should use spyware to monitor their children. Coben argues that parents should be able to know what is in their children’s lives. he believes that spyware can prevent children from being targeted by internet predators on social networking sites and even prevent children from being cyber bullied. I agree with Coben’s claim that parents should consider using spyware as a protection for their teens online. There are many possible dangers facing children on the internet and it is essential that parents install spyware.
I immensely agree with Coben because there is so many dangers that the internet has to offer that we don't know about. In the article, “As Kids Go Online, New Tools For Parents To Spy” a child who has a love for sports was watching the game on YouTube and an advertisement pops up and shows a man smoking, and a woman dancing provocatively. Your child may be searching innocent and kid-friendly videos, but the ads are not as kid-friendly as your child’s search history. This situation was merely a rough experience because there are many other situations where it is way worse. On the internet, there are stalkers, impersonators, scammers, and so much more. Criminals also create innocent looking websites and communicate through that using keywords to notify each other. The internet can expose your home to many online dangers such as “Pedophiles” or “Beheadings”. The internet is a source for everyone which makes it a danger to everyone as
The publicity about online predators that prey on naive and inexperienced young children using trickery and violence is largely inaccurate. Internet sex crimes involving adults and juveniles more often fit a model of statutory rape which is adult offenders who meet, develop relationships with, and openly seduce underage teenagers than a model of forcible sexual assault or pedophilic child molesting (Wolak et. al., 2008). However, prepubescent children are even less vulnerable because their internet use is generally more supervised by the parents and guardian. In addition, they use the internet less for communication and are for developmental reasons, less interested in sex and relationships than adolescents.
In Peter Tait’s article, “Preserving childhood innocence” he discusses how it influences the way social media has corrupted the innocence of youth. It is very easy to Google search and find anything in the blink of an eye. But, just because the information is readily available does not mean that it is a good idea to take advantage of it all at once. Parents often struggle raising their children in today’s society in which kids have much more exposure to content that is not age appropriate than the past generation had at their age. Today’s generation can be overstimulated by the kind and amount of information at their fingertips as they stumble upon it. Burdens of adult life are being unknowingly placed on kids who have not yet reached, or are just reaching, adolescence. This often leads to long-term negative psychological and social effects on children if they are prematurely exposed. Most information on the Internet is unfiltered which is often why it is often called “overexposed”. Without filtration, anyone can pull up inappropriate or false information without being aware of its inaccuracy. This includes anything from inappropriate pictures to hateful comments to uncensored language. When absorbed by a child who does not know how to self-filter the material, it can destroy the innocence that comes with being young. The kid no longer thinks like a child and is haunted by the
Another reason for not censoring the internet is the psychological effects that it can have on a child. The filtering of the internet can tell a child that adults do not trust them to surf the net on their own. This can lead them to believe that they can not make their own decisions, and that a computer determines what right and wr...
The internet is a wonderful learning tool. Of course, like any good thing, the Internet comes with its ups and downs. There are several things that aren’t suitable for any child on the internet, such as pornography, violent material, adult chat rooms, and racist or hateful sites, there are even websites about cheating in schools.
This world has become immersed in online media from socializing on networking sites to seeking information on search engines. People of all ages have become reliant on online media, but the most engaged users are the younger, more easily impacted generations. Although there are many positive uses for online media, there are many negative uses as well. Unfortunately, it is all too easy for these negative effects to impede upon the perceptions of adolescents. Some countries have been trying to reduce this effect by expelling the inappropriate content of online media ("Influence on Children Media...”). However, in the United States, children are thrown in the waves, expected to stay afloat in this massive sea, but many are being dragged under the surface by the nefarious temptations media creates. Content that is not appropriate for the young, growing minds of children are easily accessible; a myriad of devices may be used to access this material, all at the click of a button. Without adult content filters on online media, adolescents of various ages are exposed to dangerous conceptions. A world of pornography, violence, and public humiliation lay in the user’s fingertips.
With technology becoming easier and easier to use and in part due to the high sexual emphasis in the American culture, men and women are being exposed to pornography earlier and earlier, with the average age being about 12 for men and 13 for women (Gilkerson). These children easily keep their internet wanderings secret from their less technologically savvy parents, as about 62% of teens say their parents know little or nothing about the websites they visit (San Diego Court).
The advent of the internet signaled a revolutionary shift for society, in which participation in massive amounts of information was easily and rapidly accessible to any connected country. This digital revolution gave rise to monolithic digital communities that dominate the web and strongly influence the globe; Twitter helped Belarusian youth organize flash-protests against their authoritarian government in 2006, while Wikileaks continues to serve as a public international clearing-house for whistle-blowers. But despite these resounding stories of success, concern is spreading that there is an underlying problem with our digitally enhanced society – especially in the western world. Widespread debate has been sparked by the digital revolution over modern technology's influence on younger generations, with experts combating each other over whether the internet is dulling or expanding young minds. This debate is not restricted to education, but extends to cover issues of morality and perspectives. Education issues are tied to lacking cultural awareness and political activism, but world-views are a separate and altogether more severe problem for the next generation. As the internet becomes more embedded in our lives, youth are retreating into the isolation of private social bubbles and turning reality into a remote abstract concept. Apathetic, amoral and disconnected youth in the western world are spreading to replace the active socially charged older generations.
Although, it is unfair to blame technology because of the content people put on it. Greenfield, Patricia, and Zheng Yan put it best when they say, “Just as we cannot ask whether a knife is inherently good or bad, we cannot ask whether the Internet is good or bad; we can simply document how it is used.” So, as much as some may blame the Internet for its problems, the real war is against the substance within the Internet (Greenfield, Patricia, and Zheng Yan 390-93). And thus comes the main argument against the Internet, is the composition of the Internet harmful to children?
It used to be almost impossible for children to get pornography. Comer stores would place adult magazines such as playboy on the top rack behind all the other magazines so that only the title was visible and it was out of reach of children. Movie stores would have separate rooms at the front of the store for their porn videos; this way they could monitor who went into the room. In today's technologically advanced society, pornographic magazines and videos are becoming extinct. Computer users can easily search for sex sites, with millions and millions or results. All it talks is the click of the mouse and children can visit any site they want. There is know way for Internet sites to monitor who is on there site, if you click the button that says your over 18 they let you in, so a 15 year old can easily get on to the site. Pornographic websites also place other moral and social problems not just on underage teenagers but on adults as well.
Many children have access to the internet and are able to search up anything on Google. As with any type of media, there are positive effects and negative effects. Some of the negative effects of the internet for children are that ,since, children and adolescents are more or less technologically savvy than their parents, they are able to search about just about anything and and talk to just about anyone on the internet, this can lead to some very dangerous situations. According to the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, “89% of adolescents report using a computer, 61% report “surfing the net,” and 14% report seeing something that they do not want their parents to know about.” (Villani, 2001) 14% of adolescents reported seeing something that they did not want their parents to know about, this shows how unsupervised the internet is and shows how the internet can lead adolescents to become secretive and , maybe, even violent. Again, this leads to deviant behavior that the child learned from the internet. In addition, according to the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, “... a profile of the recent school killers, noted that almost all were computer-savvy and frequented sites where they could obtain violent, anarchist-oriented material.” (Villani, 2001) This shows that websites that have violent material on the
Internet has become a new equipment to improve violence and disobedience. Teenagers can have easy access to the pornography sites or adult’s chartrooms. As a matter of fact recent researches has shown that Despite the potential negative effects on children using the Internet, more than 30% of surveyed parents had not discussed the downside of Internet use with their children (Internet Advisory Board, 2001), and 62% of parents of teenagers did not realize that their children had visited inappropriate Web sites (Yankelovich Partner...
A major threat to the people who use the internet, especially children, is the sex industry. It is very hard to ignore as there are thousands of sites of which many have very unobvious site names. This makes it very easy for children to access accidentally sites which are very inappropriate and can have great harmful effects on a young childs very impressionable mind. It is not acceptable for a young person to be exposed to the intimate world of adult pornography which can include anything from child porn to bestiality. Fortunately y...