Kids These Days With Their Interwebs!

Today’s children have access to the internet in ways which were not able to be dreamed of just a few years ago.  Nearly every child has an iphone or an android phone which garners them instant access to the internet anywhere anytime.  Because of this ease of access, and the ability to access without being on the family desktop, it is becoming more and more difficult for parents to track what their children are doing online.  With new social media and other websites being created daily, having your child’s facebook password is simply not enough to have a good representation of what their online life is actually like.  I believe that the potential for both good or bad to come from this constant connectedness are ever present and significant.

 Because of this I feel it is the responsibility of everyone who has a vested interest in a child to teach them proper internet etiquette and how to avoid the potential pitfalls associated with the internet.  While I feel parents hold the lion’s share of responsibility for telling their children which websites to avoid and how to prevent being abducted or having information stolen by others, I feel that the teacher’s responsibility lies mainly in showing children proper venues of the internet which can improve their ability to learn or simply create or design projects better.  I feel that the government’s role in this would largely be one of helping to prevent and remedy illegal activities on the internet, not so much dealing with the individual’s specific website selection.

Everyone has a responsibility to act in a good manner while online, as many of us use the internet to email a coworker or supervisor and are connected to our parents or children on our social media accounts. We also owe it to ourselves and to others to ensure that we are not neglecting the actual physical world we live in for the electronic world of our computers, tablets and cell phones.