Protecting Children Fro Mass Media

Protecting children from mass media influence.

The invention of the internet has brought significant changes to today's world. Thousands of computers have become a part of this worldwide network that provides us with an easy access to the information. As a matter of fact, internet was invented for military purposes and eventually expanded to communication purposes. (Revolution of the Internet) Industries, corporations, government, households; everyone takes an advantage of the internet. Moreover, the number of people connected to the internet is rapidly growing, and by 2010 about 80 % of the world will be a part of the network. (Revolution of the Internet) As the internet has been considered as one of the greatest technological inventions, it also creates many conflicts and problems that our population needs to face. One of the major problems is that millions of children are using internet with no limitations, what in fact can bring serious consequences to youth's development and life.

The internet has become a natural part of children's environment; the statistics show that 70% of children use internet at home and about 56 % use it at school. (Children on the Internet) There is no doubt that internet is a great tool that can be used in educational system; however most of the children overuse it for other purposes. For instance, 62 % of children play online video games, while only half of them read online magazines. (Children on the Internet) As the internet can be very helpful, it can also causes serious damages in child's development. First and foremost, several hours in front of the computer lowers children's interest in interacting with other people. Instead of spending time with friends on some outside activities, or participating in cultural life, children tend to choose spending time on the internet. This has also a high impact on other interests. It is very easy to observe that children dramatically have been loosing their creativity and imagination that play an important role in their development. Talent and skills are traded to online activities that do not require much effort. The internet does not force children to be active but encourage them to lead rather passive and sedentary lifestyle. This can cause a large number of issues in our future society starting from serious health problems, mental development and lack of inspiration.

No limitation to the internet makes easier for the children to become a victim of internet crimes. That has been a real problem for the parents and government to prevent these crimes to happen. Although there are many organizations and tools that should help in this battle, the number of victims still increases. It becomes a challenge for law enforcement agencies to find the best solution to that problem. The number of children using internet is enormous and the access to the network is very easy, thus the probability to control children's online activities is very low. Children log in to many websites, where they can find an opportunity to talk about their interest, hobby, provide some personal information or place some pictures. They can very easily initiate new friendship with strangers that are being actual predator. As a matter of fact, young children and teenagers are perfect targets for criminal acts because they are naive, inexperienced and eager for attention. Lack of parental control over the online activities performed by children can lead to dramatic consequences. Unfortunately, many of these internet interactions that initially appear innocent, very often turn out to be a sexual harassment. (OVC Bulletin)