Children and the web – good or bad?

How many parents out there have found themselves telling kids to get off the internet and spend time with the family, only to tell them later to get on the internet for some homeschooling? 

 

As if controlling web time wasn’t already challenging enough for parents, lockdown turned the internet into a child’s only link to their friends and the outside world. It’s harder now to tell kids to get out and go for a walk or play. Is the web really bad for kids? British teenagers have some of the highest internet use rates of any group in the world, with younger children not far behind them. Is that really a bad thing though? 

I’m not going to lie. I’m a big fan of the internet (unsurprisingly). It is a great source of knowledge, communication and social interaction. Your children can access almost any learning instantly, talk to people across the world, and become friends with a huge diversity of different people. In educational terms, the web allows teachers to connect with students outside the classroom. It provides a platform for sending educational materials and it provides students with new ways to learn from school and home. Lockdown has given the internet a chance to really show what it can do in terms of education, and it has proved itself highly valuable. 

It has been proved that too much time spent staring at a screen can lead to anxiety, depression, and dissatisfaction with the school. Physical activity can protect from this problem. So normally, if your child spends a long time staring at their computer, phone, and TV, getting them out playing sports, doing athletics, or simply walking around with their mates is a good solution. Under lockdown, doing these outdoor activities has been difficult or impossible, and the answer? More games, social media, and general web browsing of course! At least that’s how many of the youngsters I’ve heard about think. And there are worse things still out there. So what do you think? 

So where, in the massive debate about children and web, do you stand? Should youngsters be allowed to browse this brave new world of information, education, and communication at leisure? Should they be protected from the dangers of the World Wide Web and only allowed on under strict supervision? 

 

I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Perhaps together we can all help each other out with home web rules. 

 

Guest Post by Steve Elliott