The Impact of Internet on Younger Generations

Nowadays, people spend most of their time online whether its with friends, streaming videos or conducting business. While there are many advantages due to the ever-changing technology to us humans, it bears many disadvantages. One of the most serious problems we face now is the safety of our younger generations who are exposed to Internet and advertisement. Additionally, the environment which they’re subjected to on the internet can’t be controlled or follow certain guidelines that appeal to parents. Internet might sometimes help broaden children’s knowledge to new stuff or fields in the internet which can build up their personality and make them unique. Yet, as internet have positive effects on children, big companies are misleading the mass of advertisement and using whatever mean it takes to reach their economic goal, whether it’s effecting consumer and children’s positively or negatively. In addition to that, companies are targeting young children unfairly by reaching out to celebrities that children see as role models.

Currently, internet is the most thing this generation uses , even though parents try to protect their children from harm’s way, choose who they can socialize with from children, teachers, and doctors. Companies have almost unfettered access to their children and can easily send their advertisement through multiple platforms and target them such as in schools, hospitals and public places. This issue raises an important concern as children are getting confused to the extent of thinking. Furthermore, they portray their advertisements with something of good will but in reality, it’s a deceptive message to children with little to no knowledge affecting them negatively. Also, to make it more authentic and reliable, celebrities are used to advertise the product to attract the kids who look up to them.

First, to tackle this issue the solution should start from within. Parents should be aware and supervise their kids more frequently, because at the end of the day parents are responsible to raise their children by developing their mental abilities to differentiate between right and wrong, limit the time they’re exposed to Internet, and teaching them how to do things in moderation. This solution will have a positive impact on children as it will make them more independent in their decisions plus, they’ll be more responsible.

Second, other parties like the government or advertising federation are somewhat responsible for allowing such advertisements to be promoted without limitations in places for children. They should moderate the advertisements being displayed to children and block any deceptive advertisement that might trick children negatively. Additionally, they should remove celebrities promoting advertisements through social media or any way in the internet that are targeted on children, because children think of their celebrities as their role models, so they just see the advertisements performed by them and follow them without giving it a second thought. This solution will have a greater impact positively in the long run as it will block all unnecessary deceptive advertisements and only allow ethical advertisements that promote the growth and creativity on children’s way of thinking.

To sum up, even though Internet have positive effects that could potentially educate children both physically and mentally the consequences involved greatly outweigh them as they can result to many negative things, so as parents it’s their role to educate their children on how to moderate, limit, differentiate what they’re exposed to in their daily life as eventually these children will reach a point in their life where they’ll have to take care of themselves.