Due to the advancements in technology, the internet has become easily accessible to everyone including children. The internet can indeed benefit the growth and development of children. However, there are also downsides to the internet where this could lead to negative development.
The modern era of technology has shown many benefits of how the internet affects the learning curve of children. Compared to the old ways, sources are not accessible to everyone. Therefore, limiting one’s learning. Today, different sources from different fields are available in platforms like Google, Youtube, ChatGPT, and the likes. This tool gives children an advantage on their overall growth in learning different hobbies, or it could be a helpful tool in school. Another reason to mention is that they can be exposed to different cultures and nationalities through communicating in social media. Content creators from around the world could share their culture to other countries through the internet where children can benefit from. Interacting with different nationalities may develop a sense of respect towards other traditions, and generate unique ideas that may be important to enhancing their creativity.
However, there are some negative aspects of how the internet could be harmful to children’s growth and behavior. The main issue is that without proper monitoring, guidance, or limitation from their parents, children could abuse or misuse the internet and expose themselves to explicit content that are not allowed for young ages. Moreover, social media has some trends that tend to be toxic to children, containing drugs, sexual, or violence, which risks them to imitate the bad habits of others. Another reason is that they are exposed to the dangers of messaging platforms like Messenger, Instagram, or Snapchat. Given that children are gullible and innocent, they will chat with strangers mistaking them to be nice and kind people. However, grooming incidents in these platforms has been increasing, risking children to be victims of such crimes.
In conclusion, I believe that the internet being widely available for children can be both beneficial and harmful. It can have a great impact on the children’s education and learning essential skills from using different platforms. Even so, the internet can also be toxic for young people without the needed discipline and guidance from their parents.