Abstract

This study found no displacement effect of the Internet on children\'s daily activities. Rather, it was found that children who spend more time on the Internet were more likely to spend more time with other media, more time on some kind of physical activities, and were more socially involved.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

Internet access may affect a range of skills, including academic achievement and cognitive skills. Finally, internet access may affect cognitive skills by exposing children to online activities that alter cognitive processes. The Internet is not only a source of information but a medium that connects almost every aspect of our life. The Internet is a place of great ease and infinite connectivity, but also a place of great vulnerability. In a world of the internet, we live through infinitely complex virtual networks, barely able to trace where our information is coming from and going and thus posing a threat not only to our lives but also to the lives of our children. The digital world plays an immense role in the day-to-day activities of 21st- century children.

As a younger generation is growing more and more tech-savvy and dependent on the internet, they are being exposed to the various malicious side of the internet. The U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports teens between the ages of 8 and 28 to spend about 44.5 hours a week in front of a digital screen, according to another report 23 per cent of kids have reported that they feel thatthey are addicted to video games.

The technology is everywhere. Just take a look around and think about it. Actually, take a look at your pocket or at this screen, you’re looking at right now. Technology has brought many great things to us! Most of the times, technologyhelps us things quicker and easier.

Smartphones, tablets, personal computers, video games and so on… our life is surrounded by technology and our children are also using it at home, at school, everywhere. Our children will learn many things we have not even dream about it right now. We know this is an important positive impact of technology.

But there are some negative impacts from technology overuse too, having serious consequences into our children’s life.

II. ONLINE GAMES

With fast internet and the advancement of gaming technology, the internet got bombarded with thousands of online games. Even though online games are a fun way to socialize encouraging teamwork, it comes paired with risks of it own that parents need to be aware of. Without the right guidance and supervision, games can expose children to risks such as game addiction and addiction of any kind is harmful. Now that games come paired with the option of buying in-game perks, these perks are tempting and can only be bought with real tangible money. Children end up buying these perks blowing a hole in their parent’s. There have been cases around the world where young children would buy game credits online without even informing their parents. Parents not being as tech-savvy as their child would come to know of it only after a month or two when they have almost lost all their savings. These addictions are not only affecting the pockets of the parents, there are many more harmful effects of game addiction. There have been many cases where children committed suicide because of their inability to complete various tasks in-game. Blue Whale, a notorious game that forced children to commit suicide as a task, took the lives of many.

One needs to understand that these problems arose because of the lack of proper supervision from parents. Parents should understand that taking care of their children even includes monitoring and supervising their activities and always help their children to understand the writers and wrongs of life. Activities and always help their children to understand the writers and wrongs of life.

The researchers found that video games and apps that were interactive and educational had a positive effect on children's brain development. One study showed that educational games can help pre- schoolers learn coding, literacy, and math skills. Using the internet by playing games and learning from it increases creativity and teamwork among children. Internet influence also helps to increase hand-eye coordination. Using the internet for study increases the knowledge and that increases the confidence of the students.

III. RELATIONSHIPS AND SOCIAL SKILLS

Issues Kids are using mobile devices more and more, and they can become addicted to this, not spending enough time with their family and/or friends. They are more likely to be virtually connected with friends, sharing photos and texting online than actually meeting them in person. The new generation is growing up playing games online, accessing websites (sometimes harmful websites), chatting online on Facebook, sharing photos on Instagram and Snapchat and so on. It doesn’t mean that spending time online is a bad thing, but spending too much time online can really weaken the bond between the parents and the child, and also private the child to improve several social skills. We have all seen an immense rise in the number of social media users in recent times. According to the statistics, 90 per cent of teens ages 13-17 years are on social media. 51 per cent of them are daily active on social media, shocking. Isn’t it? Social media platforms were introduced to connect people around the world. However, it is not the same place which was introduced to us. In recent times, we have only witnessed violent, sexual and hateful content dominating these platforms. People could have used it to share positive and learning stuff instead of sharing dark content. This kind of content has a harmful impact on psychology, especially on kids. No parent around the world would want their kids to absorb this kind of content. Especially after seeing the huge rise in the number of depression cases. Parents are quite limited in keeping an eye on the content their kids are absorbing on these platforms.

On the very last World Mental Health Day, experts suggested taking a break from social media platforms as these are having a negative impact on mental health.

A. Health Problems

The overuse of mobile devices can be harmful to children’s health. The more they use mobile devices, the less physical activities they do. The problem is that playing games online is combined with snacking, substituting the balanced alimentation. As children spend more time in front of those screens, most of the time in the couch, less time they spend outside playing, running and burning off calories. Over time, those habits can lead to a significant weight gain.

To prevent it from becoming a habit, parents can talk with their children about parental controls and use Screen Guide App to balance screen time.

Remember: it's important to balance the quality and quantity of the time they spend on digital devices. Teach your children that there is time for everything, even to play games online. But it’s also important to balance it, otherwise many problems come along. Check out tips to have "The Tech Talk" with your children here.

Having access to the internet on smart devices led to the overuse of smart devices like laptops or smartphones/ tablets. You would be shocked to know the number of diseases reported among children globally. All this is a result of cutting off physical activities because of playing games or accessing the internet or binge-watching for long hours. There is a huge rise in the number of patients with insomnia, depression, obesity, and eyesight among children.

Children who spend more time on computers, watching TV and playing video games, tend to experience higher levels of emotional distress, anxiety and depression,” the report said. Some 750,000 teenagers, the study found, are so depressed they have “nothing to live for. Examples include major breaches of privacy and security, the proliferation of fake news, harmful actions such as cyberbullying, revenge porn, sextortion, internet predation and internet addiction, as well as the negative effects of the internet on social relationships and social cohesion.

IV. BROWSING ONLINE CAN BE DANGEROUS

While browsing online we often face harmful things such as phishing, virus and other dangers disguised as advertising. Most of the adults know it and can easily avoid them, but what about our children? Sometimes even the advert can be harmless to them. A study from 2005 says that 70% of teens aged between 15-17 have accidentally stumbled across pornography online. What about nowadays?

The children can go online and search for anything. But with the right monitoring, they will not access dangers websites, avoiding to meet dangerous people. Keep in mind that you can always guide your children to avoid those dangers. One way to help children to be safe online is to use parental controls and Internet filtering tools to select the content they are able to access or even block browsers for as long as you consider it is appropriated.

Conclusion

Using the internet by playing games and learning from it increases creativity and teamwork among children. Internet influence also helps to increase hand-eye coordination. Using the internet for study increases the knowledge and that increases the confidence of the students. As mentioned in the above paragraphs, it clearly shows how harmful the internet can become for children. And as a parent, you would all be more worried now and looking for solutions here and there.

References

[1] http time of India .com, Deolalikar, Anil B. (1999) “Primary and Secondary Education in Kenya: A Sector Review.” [2] Dupas, Pascaline, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer. 2007. \"Peer Effects, Pupil-Teacher Ratios, and Teacher Incentives”. [3] Prathama Organization (2005), “Annual Status of Education Report,” (Pratham Resource Center, Mumbai).

Copyright

Copyright © 2022 Khan Mohd Amir Lukman, Khan Asif Ayyub. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.