The Internet Is Ruining our Children's Lives

"The Internet is ruining our children's lives." You hear it all the time. People blame the internet for children's problems in today's society. While the internet may definitely add to some problems it is definitely not the source and sole cause of the problem at all.

Outside of class we watched Growing Up Online a Frontline program about a handful of different teenagers and their stories of their lives and how the internet affected them. While the stories told are not the only cases of things like that happening, I'm sure, it still only represents a handful of kids.

One of the stories was about a girl named "Autumn" created a whole online persona for herself completely without the knowledge of her parents and launched a whole new life on the internet. While the internet definitely allows for easier access for something like that, it is not like children were not sneaking off in the middle of the night or lying to their parents before the internet came around.

Honestly, how the internet affects children's lives really lies heavily upon the parents. I'm definitely not saying that parent's should have 24/7 access to everything their child is doing (like Cam's mother in the Frontline story) but they should be involved enough in their child's life to make sure that they are doing alright. Parent's should also make sure in younger children especially to monitor how much time is allowed on the internet and make sure that their kids still get to grow up playing outside and using their imagination rather that staring into a screen all day.