Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Adolescents and Internet Abuse
Why are adolescents so vulnerable to internet addiction or abuse? Should we have policies in place that limit the use of particular forms of the CMC/ICT to certain age groups? That is, like alcohol use, should we limit the use of online gaming and chatrooms to people over the age of 21?
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4 comments:
I don't know how you would really control the age online. For example, myspace asks you to put in your birthday to try and keep the younger generation off of there. People just lie, and it is much easier to lie online. It sounds like a good operation, but I do not think it could be implemented properly. This should be left to the parents to monitor. As I was growing up I was not allowed to have a computer in my room, and I don't believe that I would let my child have one in their either. You can not watch what you child does everyday but get them involved in other activities or make time out of you schedule to sit down with them and do something than being on the internet.
I think that there should be a age limit but there is no way of knowing who is actually giving a truthful birthdate. I think the age of 18 would be a respective age for people to get into online chat rooms. Facebook started out that way by using your school email address to get a profile. If you have a college email address than more than likely you are going to be 18.
It would be nice if the content itself could be more properly monitored, but limiting a young person from online gaming or chatting really bothers me.
There's so much negativity even about online gaming, but I think it's more of a generational thing. Video games today are more like watching a movie, except it's interactive. If we were to set an age limit on all online gaming, then should we restrict other things that were once controversial?
As for chatting, there are definitely some dangers involved, but I think parents should be responsible instead of the government doing more policing.
I don't think you can put an age limit on something like the internet. Like everyone said above ... it comes down to the parents taking control of the situation.
In addition I think our generation (or at least the individuals who have embraced the internet) will have a little bit of a different mind set about the internet and what we will allow our kids to do...Like another article stated, our parents never warned us of the dangers and consequences of the internet because they never experienced it themselves. Now we are "somewhat" experienced today and know these things!
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