Kids at play are safer than wired 24/7

Over the past five years, the amount of time that children spend online has increased by 63%. As internet connectivity has now included mobile phones in its reach, it is possible to stay connected to the cyber world 24/7.

While the Internet has its benefits, it also poses increasing danger to the innocent; the ease of connectivity has made monitoring by parents and guardians extremely difficult.
Predators like paedophiles are a constant worry.

Cyber bullying has become a menace and schools, parents and the law are all at a loss of how to deal with it. Bullying using non-conventional methods is easy and harder to detect than real-life bullying. This is leading to high levels of teen depression, even in India, especially in the big cities. Ethics and morality are also taking a beating here, feel psychologists.

The sharing of information is also changing the way we connect with the world and there are concerns that children and teenagers share too much. This again makes them and their families vulnerable to fraud, bullying and a number of potential crimes. It is hard enough with adults — who still fall for well-documented and publicised internet scams — but providing
protection for the young is another ball game.

The biggest problem perhaps is that children are better at being wired in than adults. This means that in the average family, it is they who are the experts. How then, does a parent keep track? The only answer is for adults to supervise their children’s time and engage on as many social networking sites as possible.

A recent study suggests that as the Internet evolves, so will its protocols and laws and with that will come a better chance for monitoring.

This may well be true but it also makes it sound easier than it is. The lure of
constant connectivity afflicts us all.

The additional challenge is to get children away from the screens and out into the real world. Perhaps it comes down to re-introducing that old chant which parents have long used —try and force their children to go out and play!