Effects of the Internet (Technology) on Children (Essay Sample)

Effects of the Internet (Technology) on Children
Introduction
The internet has become a fundamental element of the majority of citizens' everyday life. As we become more and more dependent in the internet, it is no shock that modern children have turned into avid consumers of the internet, as well. Laptops are getting invented for children as infantile as five. On the other hand, Smart phones are currently in the hands of kids as immature as eight. The Kaiser Family Foundation established in their 2010 review on Media use in 8-18 year-old children that, this cluster uses a regular amount of forty-five minutes and ten hours daily in the internet (Gutnick, Robb, Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2010, p. 15). Even after putting into consideration multitasking, the sum still rests high at thirty-eight minutes and seven hours, exceeding the 2004 findings with more than an hour. As children persist to turn into immersed internet, a lot of adults have begun to question, whether or not this contact of such a soaring total of electronic media is a good obsession or not. In the positive side, there is a consensus that the internet prepares the kids for the ‘actual world', which they will eventually explore. Sixty percent of occupations in the marketplace are internet linked, and kids require the technology benefit to be victorious in such a setting. On the negative side, nevertheless, others make the argument that children in contact with the internet turn out to be socially stunted, unappreciative, and ridden with fitness linked problems.
Actual thesis and summary
The internet has unlocked up a world of immense chances, however, these chances have come with immense hazards. While having an immediate answer to the positive and negative effect of the internet is impossible, it is crucial to look at the issue from both sides of the argument, and establish the right course for modern children. According to a PhD tutor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sherry Turkle, christening the internet as either bad or good does not unravel the problem (Livingstone, 2009). So as to comprehend the disagreement surrounding the internet and kids, we must comprehend the positive and negatives, and how the choice about the internet application will influence today's kids as they develop.
Literature review
Although research concerning internet use in juvenile adults is widespread, little study pays attention to preschool-aged, young children internet use, and what effect this might have on their social and academic lives at this essential time in their growth. In the subsequent pages, I will keenly scrutinize the present findings concerning young children's use of the internet to establish how their social and academic lives get affected by the internet, and determine where supplementary study may be required
Presently, the number of children under the age of eleven is 50 million in America (Gutnick, Robb, Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2010, p. 8). These kids are in contact with an astonishing quantity of media every day; as a matter of fact, the normal American kid uses 45 minutes, 10 hours every day in the consumption of technology (Gutnick, Robb, Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2010, p. 10). Kids get exposed to the internet at more and more juvenile ages. Their premature utilization gets frequently inclined by their parents' feelings to the internet (Gutnick, Robb, Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2010). In many instances, it gets applied by parents as a technique to distract or else engage kids, whereas the adult's concentration gets centered on other errands (Gutnick, Robb, Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2010). One of the most contentious technologies that young kids interrelate with is the internet. It gets heralded as both a potential hazard and an educational tool. The massive quantity of convenient information, complementary communication, and interesting content is pleasant to many; nevertheless, the immeasurable danger of scams, identity theft, and sexual predators make many parents apprehensive, concerning their child's online time. Young kids get exposed to the internet both in educational settings and at their homes. Globally, the bulk of homes that have internet contact are homes with kids (Livingstone, 2003; Livingstone, 2009). Two-thirds of every American family with kids below 11 years possesses a computer having internet contact. Likewise, 99% of civic schools in America give scholars internet access (Kuiper, Volman, & Terwel, 2005). As a result, almost 80% of US kids below five years utilize the internet at the smallest amount, one time per week (Gutnick, Robb, Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2010). By the time, they reach three, approximately 25% of children in America are online each day (Gutnick, Robb, Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2010). There is a comparable tendency universally: 40% of children in Australian at the age of four to six years have gone online for an average of two years or more (Johnson, 2010). Seventy percent of Scottish and Australian children get to utilize and enjoy the internet at home (Johnson, 2010; Stephen, McPake, Plowman, & Berch-Heyman, 2008).
Research from all over the globe has some resemblance. First, a lot of studies concur that it is difficult to correctly assess internet custom of preschoolers, or put a rate on it. Second, studies all over the world concur that the disparities for kids internet contact; the "digital split" still subsists (Gutnick, Robb, Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2010; Johnson, 2010; Livingstone & Helsper, 2007; Livingstone, 2003). Finally, almost all of the studies reference uttered a necessity for additional research on the issue. Researchers concur that the internet creates both advantages and dangers to young kids. The internet can offer a channel of access to information and communication, as well as permit kids to take part in interactive fun (Johnson, 2010), as well as try out their identities in a moderately secure setting (Livingstone, 2003). On the other hand, there are many apprehensions concerning the threat of internet and media utilization: stunted imaginations, the loss of traditional literacy and skills, developmental troubles and children separating themselves from their families and peers (Livingstone, 2003), as well as concerns of commercialism, privacy, and the quantity of sexual substance online (Bener, Al-Mahdi, Vachhani, Al-Nufal, & Ali, 2010). Lastly, there are fitness risks linked with lengthened internet use; including poor nutrition, poor vision and poor life habits (Bener, Al-Mahdi, Vachhani, Al-Nufal, & Ali, 2010). There are also apprehensions regarding how the internet will affect the conventional classroom learning. Gudmundur Kristmundsson, a Dutch researcher affirms that, "for the initial point in the account of education it is impossible to assume that educators are ahead of theirs learners in an issue (Kuiper, Volman, & Terwel, 2005)." Does this signify, nevertheless, that learners will go to the internet for data, instead of their trainers, who have restricted information? Not essentially. In an article in 2005 article, Els Kuiper, Monique Volman, and Jan Terwel dispute that "the internet can instead get viewed as an instrument that in definite circumstances can participate in the education processes of learners" (Mark, 2009). Julie Frechette, a literacy and Media scholar concurs, stating that education has changed from the information someone has to how an individual can get information (Kuiper, Volman, & Terwel, 2005).
Empirical research
Empirical research indicates that getting the equilibrium between the negative and positive effects of the internet on children is not easy. At one hand, the evidence suggests that in altering children's Internet utilization, parent risk two failures; the disappointment to take up chances, and the disappointment to defend against threats. Qualitative research proposes that parental uncertainties of the threat; whether technological, commercial or sexual; result in children apprehensive of, or not permitted to, use email, download files, answer dialog boxes, go to chat rooms or use file attachments.
A thin empirical base
Whereas much gets, learned as the study of this evaluation illustrates the qualified immaturity of the study field at the moment gets discovered throughout its methodological selections, although these also, obviously, mirror the funding accessible. Many of the empirical study projects, therefore, far have the eminence of pilot instead of fully-fledged researches. Too frequently, empirical material is slim, and in other instances just anecdotal. Samples get expediency instead of being systematically drawn. Much of the studies centers on what makes people utilize the Internet (their social group and their motivations) or on how they utilize it (how long, where, when, with whom) than on its consequences or impacts (harms, benefits, outcomes). Little gets acknowledged yet in relation to the internet contents accessible for children, and still fewer in relation to how these get utilized by children.
Debate
There is an agreement amongst the academic society, by a distinction with that amid policy spheres that the pressure on threats is prejudicing the policy program away from a positive examination of the profits of the Internet. For instance, it gets noted that there exists a partiality to protect children against pornography instead of protecting their confidentiality. On this ground, one series, of research centers not on children's utilization of the Internet, but on how the public comprehends their application, examining the public dissertation of t...