Internet Influence on Kids

A kid using internet on a tablet

Internet has been the most popular thing since many years. And why shouldn’t it be? It contains all the information regarding everything that we need. We can go on a world tour while sitting at home. We can read whatever we want. We can watch movies, play games, get knowledge of everything, be social, make new friends etc. This sounds interesting right? Because internet is an interesting invention. But the good things also have some major flaws that cannot be ignored.

As a matter of fact internet is a good thing but it is quite addictive. It can draw anyone’s attention towards anything. Everyone, but mostly kids are getting addicted to the internet. Why shouldn’t they be addicted to the internet? It provides them the best platform to play games and watch cartoons. But excess of anything is bad. Kids nowadays don’t want to play outdoor games instead they want to sit home and play on mobiles. Children who spend most of the time on internet spend none or very less time in physical activities. That’s why today’s kids are not that much physically fit because they are far away from physical activities. They become very much engaged on the internet that they leave behind every important work like studies, taking bath even some kids skip their meals while playing some game. Well this is just the beginning of addiction.

Kids who love cartoons and cartoon movies more than anything only use youtube. Youtube is the best platform to watch videos of every kind. Kids switch from one cartoon movie to another and so on that they become very busy and become unaware of what’s happening in their surroundings. This frequent switching from one video to another can also result in clicking an adult video not suitable for them. Well this happens most of the time. Inappropriate ads are waving here and there on some page begging us to click on them, and while there are these innocent kids who click on them and are navigated to some adult websites. This increases their interest and addiction more and they become mature at a very early age. This can be a complete loss because those kids are ruining their childhood with their own hands. This is the next level of addiction that is quite dangerous.

Children nowadays think that internet is their major support. They often take help in their studies from internet which is good. But when they are given some homework like writing an essay on some topic they plagiarize that from the internet. This kind of children lack creativity and they totally depend upon internet. It can ruin their mental strength because until and unless they don’t use their brains in this kind of work, how are they supposed to make critical and creative decisions in future?

Children who are deeply involved in internet often become victims of depression and loneliness. Sometimes internet servers get down and there happens some technical issues in the internet, children act like they are deprived from something dearest to them. As a result they become depressed, irritated, shouting on their parents to fix the internet or have internet fixed as soon as possible etc. This can determine their loneliness. At such an early age depression and loneliness can be harmful for a kid.

Some children love to interact with new people. Platforms like facebook, twitter etc help them. Interaction with different people is good because you get to know their lifestyles, their cultures etc which is in sense is also a general knowledge. But there should be a limit of interaction. Friendships, relationships on these sites are just a time pass. Some innocent kids tell those strangers every bit of their information like where do he/she live, where he/she gets education, his/her personal family matters and all that shouldn’t be told to a stranger. These actions might have some bitter consequences. Kids can be kidnapped, family can be robbed, thieves can steal houses etc.

These all actions that are described vastly above are due to the addiction of kids to the internet. Well I don’t blame children as they are innocent and know nothing. Instead I blame their parents who give their children full access to the internet. If a child is weeping, give him/her mobile phone. If a child is creating disturbance, give him/her mobile phone. If anything happens, give your children mobile phone. Parents should understand that there are many other ways to handle their children. They should encourage their children to involve in physical activities more than internet. I am not saying to break off internet from lives of children completely, but they should be deeply overlooked by their parents. Parents should not allow their children to spend their whole time on internet. They need to understand that internet has detritions more than benefits for kids.