Internet is the most powerful tool invention and if used in the positive direction, the internet can prove to be very productive. Teens can gain access to information and learning opportunities, practice written communication, connect with people who have similar interests and explore creativity through videos, blogs,and online art or music creation. With the positive comes the potential for danger, especially for teens who may lack the self-regulation to use the Internet appropriately.
These days , due to the social networking sites such as Facebook taking over, internet is producing adverse effects on the teens, especially those students studying in college. As it is rightly said, something that has some positive effects also has some of the negative effects on the other hand. Here are the top 10 negative effects of internet on teens:
Inactivity: Physical exercise has become scarce. They prefer bikes instead of cycles or walking. This may cause obesity. And, to add to this problem, internet is there. Students spend most of their leisure time sitting at one place in front of their computers and very less movement is done by their body. Lack of any kind of activity is one of the root causes of all the problems occurring to the body. Even at night, instead of sleeping they spend time on internet. Many of other health related problems may also rise due to obesity and inertia.
Sexual Exploitation: According to the study conducted by University of Florida, the students who use internet two or three hours on a daily basis are likely to fall a prey to sexual exploitation. With the advent of internet, exploiting small children sexually has become very easy. There are a large number of sexual predators lying there on the internet and once a kid comes in contact with such people, his mind and thoughts are affected by that. In the long run, this can produce adverse effects on the mental health of the kid and he is sexually exploited online. In extreme cases, students might not be able to tell these things to anyone.
Cyberbullying: When tweens use the internet to bully other tweens of the same age group, this is known as cyber bullying and this is a very negative effect of internet on the students. Students feel insulted or embarrassed when someone bullies them. Sometimes students upload funny images of a fellow classmate which may lead to depression or mental harassment for the later. There have been many cases reported where some of the students have committed suicides as a result of cyber bullying. As the usage of internet are increasing day by day on kids, cases of cyberbullying are also increasing.
Loss of the human touch People absorbed in their activities online tend to forget that there are real people in their surroundings who need their attention or have socialization needs. Social networking gives more importance to virtual friends than real ones.
Privacy is distributed The more you use internet, more are the chances that your privacy is disturbed. Hacking the internet has become very easy these days, hackers are very intelligent and you cannot even imagine how they are going to use this talent of theirs to spoil your life. Not only the basic information, but some of your most confidential details might get into their hands if you do not use the internet safely. Kid must use the internet under the supervision of their parents. Parents can use parental control app like Nischint to monitor their online activities.
Children, teens get addicted to games online: Online games can be addictive to children. The more they sit in front of computers, lesser the time they would give for studies.This can rob away precious time which otherwise should have been used for something more productive. In some cases, they start having poor performance in an exam which leads to further depression. Internet, is a very valuable resource but if students use it excessively, even this resource can produce very negative effects.
Insomnia: Due to the presence of internet, some students shorten their sleeping hours. They sit on their laptops late at night, chatting with their friends or playing games on the online gaming sites. If this thing continues for a long time, insomnia may occur and it might affect your mental and physical growth.These days, students check their updates on Facebook and Instagram even in the middle of nights on their mobiles.
Inappropriate Relationships : Technology instantly connects teens to friends, acquaintances and strangers. While many are positive relationships, teens may fall prey to online predators who portray themselves inaccurately. A teen may share too much private information with strangers, including her full name, address or school name. This gives a potential predator the chance to victimize the teen. The Internet has its fair share of sexually explicit materials, which is easily accessible to teens. “Sexting”, which includes sending or receiving any sexually related material, is another concern. Teens often don’t think about those messages or images being passed on. Poor decision-making regarding these images and messages can affect a teen’s reputation in high school and beyond. These short film aims at addressing the issue of online sexual predators who use social networks to trap
Pornography is rampant : Anybody can easily upload pornographic material for commercial purposes or just for fun. Nowadays, Instagram and Snapchat are fast becoming porn hubs. People send naked pictures as it disappears after seconds. Many porn stars also have their accounts on snapchat. The young minds of children will be corrupted through their exposure to things which are reserved for adults. Many well-known personalities are also victimized by opportunistic and malicious people who want to discredit others using their personal encounters.
Loss of the human touch People absorbed in their activities online tend to forget that there are real people in their surroundings who need their attention or have socialization needs. Social networking gives more importance to virtual friends than real ones. There are many instances where kids talk to each other on Facebook the entire day but in reality, they behave like a stranger. Remember the days when the dinner time used to be the best time with the family, but its not the same now. Kids are so addicted with their phone that they ignore their family even in the dining table.
Considering that the effects of the internet to people can be both positive and negative, there is a need to manage this technology for kid’s overall benefit. Make sure that internet security is well in place to prevent the negative effects of the internet to teen. Manage screentime, block apps, monitor their Facebook and other social network with Nischint
