Issues

While researching I found three main issues revolving the internet and children. Obviously since there are negative impacts on children, there must also be positives.These three points are the one I found to be most important and relevant to me as a future teacher.

The first point I'd like to introduce is the safety of children while they use the Internet. There are many things that could impact the child while on the Internet. The first, are the physical, emotional, behavioral, mental and responsibility of allowing children unlimited time on the Internet whenever they please. Allowing children to sit and play on the computer for hours on end can have serious negative health effects such as poor eyesight, back and neck problems and obesity. Since the child isn't out interacting with other kids, they are losing a beneficial part of growth in the brain and body. Also if the child doesn't have contact with people this will impact their social, behavioral and emotional communication skills with others. These skills are essential for school, social and future work life, it is very important that children receive different types of communication. Expanding their knowledge on the Internet with games, resources and interesting pictures can have its benefits in moderation and I also think its great that children have a curiosity to learn. If we didn't encourage this curiosity we wouldn't be where we are today with technology and all other inventions.

The next focus is how children use the Internet. We all know that children learn what they know from the adults and peers around them. Since most children don't receive any education on using the Internet and its resources correctly, several issues may arise. Viruses and hackers can target children because they have less experience on the Internet and a child receiving an email for a free phone or television would obviously be interested and click the link. This can download many things onto the computer and make it difficult to use. Since children are more vulnerable than adults they are targeted and most times, especially in my case have learned from experience what happened when you open spam mail. This could also include illegal material that the kids wouldn't have found on their own.

The last focus I wanted to point out was the impact of netiquette and cyber-bullying. Obviously these are drastically different topics but intertwine closely once it comes to its impact on the classroom. Internet usage can be done in or out of the classroom. The impact can occur in both, cyber-bullying once it happens, children have access to the Internet in most areas of the school and now with smart phones even more unrestricted access to cyber-bullying mediums. Netiquette if the teacher displays unprofessional ways to use the Internet can impact the use of their students future use. This also goes the other way too, if students are using the Internet inappropriately and showing their friends how to download videos and other things this can rise issues especially in the classroom. If any issues from social or home life come into the classroom with the student it is likely that it will impact their performance in class. Netiquette and cyber-bullying have the ability to happen anywhere, this is part of why it is so important that we monitor students use of the Internet.  

Humorous netiquette video based on the T.V. show The Office


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