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Childhood Development

In this era that we live in children are presented with the ability to access millions of

different websites across the internet through the use of technological advices that are carelessly

given to by legal guardians. Children nowadays have a tremendous superpower that wasn’t all so

available to the children that are now mostly in their mid and late twenties. The technology that

is present in this world and the information on it could have exponential benefits on children but

could also have enormous exponential negative effects on these same children as well. If parents

and guardians were able to take extreme measures in filtering information to their children would

it be seen as a violation of rights? Filtering information to children has always been something

that has been around but has never been effective whatsoever though what if it could entirely

change. If given the perfect set of rules and circumstances should a child be restricted from

certain information on the internet and what it has to offer or should that child be closely

moderated into receiving this information in order for the child to fully maximize development

both physically and psychologically. In the paper, risks and benefits of children using the

internet the authors state “the internet could have both positive and negative effects on the

individual…” They go onto describe these effects may be profound in others, but claim “when it

comes to children the internet could have a very strong effect on them.”

From the Article Child Abuse and Neglect it was evidently found that “1 in 4 kids will

inadvertently seen some form of pornography” and the statistic for children who purposely

viewed pornography was 1 in 3. According to Mitchell J Kimberly almost no households use any

internet filter software for their children and even then children still find ways to view

information that they aren’t supposed to. Does this outweigh the benefits of internet use? UK

Safer Internet Centre seems to believe the beneficial factors outweigh any of the negative
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harmful things the internet may have to offer. Beneficial skills like, “hand-eye coordination,

access to terabytes of information, language skills, problem solving, high quality content.” Are

all things argued that are being influenced toward the child. However even then in this article the

authors state “when used correctly, in moderation coupled with and not to the detriment of other

activities the use of technology could be beneficial to your child’s development.” That being said

with these two articles in comparison, even though one of them is praising the internet and its

benefits doesn’t it still call for some form of filtering or moderation as argued in the first article

from Child Abuse and Neglect.

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