If you all have been reading this blog for several months, you may remember that I have a 12-year-old sister who has given me a unique insight into how children and teenagers use technology. I try my hardest to stay up to speed on what social media platforms are being used and what websites are visited more often than others; however, she sometimes finds new programs and software faster than I do. This month is her birthday, and she will finally be a teenager. Naturally, I am a little hesitant to see how social media continues to affect her life. Today I want to talk about three aspects of the online world for children: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Photo by Creative Christians on Unsplash
The Good
• Education at the touch of a Finger.
- When I was in middle school, Chromebooks and iPads were being introduced to classrooms everywhere. These technological devices were serving as a means to gather information and share articles through email, applications, and online class environments. During the global COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, people around the world truly grasped the limitless potential benefits technology and internet access
have on our future education systems. This remote learning opportunity allowed students to learn at their own pace and develop new study habits that more closely reflect the way students learn other things online. Even as the Pandemic slows and children head back into their traditional classroom environments, schools systems all across America have realized that many students and parents want more remote learning opportunities (George et al., 2021). Programs like Canvas, Blackboard, and Google Classrooms have allowed teachers everywhere to create assignments and online grading environments.
• Children can teach themselves.
- In 1999, a set of experiments began in New Delhi where the conductors cut a hole in a wall between an office and an urban slum. In the hole, they set up a PC with internet and had the monitor facing the slum with Altavista.com on and just left it there. Several hours later there was an eight-year-old and a six-year-old, and the older child was teaching the younger child how to use the browser. The conductors did not understand how the boy learned to use the computer, or speak English for that matter, but they were impressed either way. After that experiment, they changed the location and tried again. The experiment results repeated themselves, and the conductors found that the children were using the internet to teach themselves how to use the PC. They were also using different websites to learn simple English words in order to understand the programs they were using (Mitra, 2007). The way that these children were able to teach themselves how to use this new technology was incredible, and it proves that children are very capable of learning on their own.
• Cyberbullying is one of the leading causes of teenage suicide.
- As technology has continued to grow, so has the number of cyberbullies who had behind a screen to torment their peers. This type of bullying can begin as early as age 10. Bullying, in general, does not only destroy children's self-esteem, but it can also cause those children to have suicidal thoughts. In fact, children who have been or are currently being cyberbullied are 1.9 times more likely to commit suicide (Petrov, 2021). In 2021, this remains to be true. If parents create an open line of communication with their children, it will allow them to share these instances with them. This greatly reduces the probability that self-harm or suicide occurs.
• Children using social media is affecting their social skills.
- Maslow's Hierarchy of basic needs shows that humans are naturally social creatures, and many children do not fully develop without human interaction (Ravi & Chakravarthy, 2021). By using technological devices, children are becoming less and less reliant on in-person interaction. Most conversations are taking place with text messages, and that means that a falsified sense of interaction is forming. Many children feel connected with their peers; however, they do not actually know them or hang out with them. That is why children are finding it more difficult to hold eye contact and conversations with others when out in public settings.
The Ugly
• The internet is not a safe place for children to roam unattended.
- Just like you would not leave a child alone in a crowded park, children should not be left alone online. Predators are very real—especially in an online environment. One of the greatest dangers for children online is Cyber Predators. Cyber Predators are typically real-life sexual predators who stalk children on the internet. They can also pose to be someone they are not in order to gain personal information with these children and earn their trust. These predators spend time lurking on social media and gaming platforms where children are naturally drawn (Kaspersky, 2021). Anonymus websites such as Omegle allow this type of behavior to happen more often than not, and if children are not being monitored—there is no idea what all they are potentially being exposed to.
While knowing these things is great, implementing some of the suggestions about educating children on appropriate online behavior will more than likely protect them from harm. We are well past the generation where we can expect children to stay in the dark. While ignorance is bliss, it is also one of the quickest ways for a child to find themselves in danger.
George, D. S., Strauss, V., Meckler, L., Heim, J., & Natanson, H. (2021, March 15). How the Pandemic is Reshaping Education. The Washington Post. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/03/15/pandemic-school-year-changes/.
Kaspersky. (2021, August 23). Internet Safety for Kids: How to Protect Your Child from the Top 7 Dangers They Face Online. www.kaspersky.com. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/threats/top-seven-dangers-children-face-online.
Mitra, S. (2007). Transcript of "Kids Can Teach Themselves". TED. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_kids_can_teach_themselves/transcript.
Petrov, C. (2021, October 2). 50 Worrying Cyberbullying Statistics for 2021 - Is your child safe? TechJury. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://techjury.net/blog/cyberbullying-statistics/#gref.
Ravi, S., & Chakravarthy, R. (2021, January 25). How the Pandemic is Affecting Children's Social Skills. The Indian Express. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://indianexpress.com/article/parenting/blog/how-the-pandemic-is-affecting-childrens-social-skills-7097783/.
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