English 0090
Parenting was a challenging venture prior to the digital age. The problem is now compounded by several new challenges that have emerged over the last three decades. The internet has given kids access to an enormous amount of information (Clark 15). While this is good for their development and learning, it has also opened doors to adult content, cyber-bullying, addictive online gaming, and other forms of harassment through the social media (Livingstone, 159).
Parents are becoming busier as economic times get tougher. The changing parenting landscape has given the child a lot of unmonitored time. A considerable amount of that time is spent on the internet either researching for homework, on social media sites communicating with friends, family and strangers alike. Accessing adult content on the internet does not have to be intentional. A child might be searching for something online and misspells a word that gives results for adult content. This can be a starting point for a habit that can destroy their entire life.
According to Haffner, the explosion of media exposure has made parenting more challenging in the last twenty years (12). Children are accessing the internet easily in their bedrooms, making it difficult for parents, who are not tech-savvy, to track their activities online. This makes it easy for children to access pornography online without their parents’ knowledge. To deal with such a challenge effectively, parents can track their children’s search history and sit down with kids to discuss the proper internet usage (Haffner 15).
Social media has brought with it a new form of bullying called “cyber-bullying.” An eight-year old girl can get defaming tweets, emails, or facebook comments online from unknown persons, causing her psychological torture. Cyber-bullying can also degenerate to cyber-harassment or cyber-stalking by adults leading to detrimental consequences. Parenting in the digital era has to take into account these new forms of child harassment and learn how to avoid and deal with them when they arise (McQuade III 73).
Social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have introduced kids to a wide range of personalities, some of which will want to misuse their innocence (McQuade III 73). Kids can easily accept a friend request from a 50-year old sociopath masquerading as a fifteen year old girl and run into their trap. Trying to track the type of friends a child has on these social media sites has proven a challenge that parents and professionals are still trying to solve.
The third challenge is the addiction to online gaming. Experts in parenting advise that if a child is spending more than 25 hour a week playing games online, then he or she should be evaluated to determine if there is an addiction (McQuade III 72). Farmville has the largest number of players online. Parents, therefore, should be on the lookout for any signs of addiction to such games. As social games gain in popularity and profitability, the number of kids who are becoming addicting is increasing. The only way for now is to observe and monitor children’s use of the internet games and talk to them on the dangers they pose to their education and future.
In conclusion, experts have provided some solutions to the challenges of parenting posed by the internet. One of the most common and easy to administer is to keep computers in a common area and avoid kids having computers in their bedrooms. However, with smartphones, tablet computers, and laptops, this is proving to be a challenge to many parents.
Work Cited
Clark, Lynn Schofield. The Parent App: Understanding Families in the Digital Age. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
Haffner, Debra W. What Every 21st Century Parent Needs to Know: Facing Today’s Challenges With Wisdom and Heart. New York: Newmarket Press, 2008. Print.
Livingstone, Sonia. Kids Online: Opportunities and Risks for Children. Ed. Leslie Haddon. Bristol: The Policy Press, 2009. Print.
McQuade III, Samuel, James P. Colt, and Nancy B.B. Meyer. Cyber Bullying: Protecting Kids and Adults from Online Bullies. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2009. Print.
