By MARK VAGELAKOS
As the media becomes a constant presence in developed countries, users must realize easier access to information means taking the bad with the good.
The Internet is a vital tool for research seeking students and recipe hunting grandmothers alike. The Internet has something for everyone, but this means that it is also full of the negative influences parents try to protect their children from. The Internet is the weak link in the media chain that allows children to be influenced by drugs and sex at a young age. While most media influences like television, radio and newspapers practice self-censorship, where adult content can only be seen past midnight or if one is 18, the Internet has no such mandatory limitations.
In fact, a 2010 survey by Pew Research Group said 75 percent of adults would like to see tighter enforcements on broadcast content, especially when kids are watching.
Occasionally, sites with adult content will only allow those 18 and up to enter, but a simple dishonest click defeats this purpose and exposes viewers to content once reserved for the backs of seedy movie stores.
As Jonah Goldberg of the National Review Online puts it, most people would think vulgarity has no place in media that is easy for children to access. For example, “If ABC devoted the Sunday dinner hour to a hardcore triple-X orgy, we would say, ‘That’s inappropriate’,” Goldberg said.
The bottom line is that the Internet has adult content that it often fails to warn its younger users or parents about.
Furthermore, parents should be wary of not only the dark corners of the Internet, but the celebrities who adorn the covers of magazines and are featured on prime time specials. Celebrities are only seen in a skewed perspective of their lives with little immediate consequences for their actions, except for the occasional jail stint.
While a few celebrities have good messages, like working hard and treating others equally, most offer a tainted reality with ditsy role models, like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Young girls can now follow the example of Kim Kardashian and leak homemade sex tapes. Maybe, they will even get a TV deal like the shameless diva. Celebrity role models are undesirable because they offer only a glimpse of their life unlike real life role models whose every contextual action is considered.
However, teens should also be concerned with what they add to the Internet themselves.
According to a study by ExecuNet, 77 percent of employers are conducting searches of social network sites with 35 percent saying they have removed someone from employment or not hired someone because of the content found.
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter often permanently store information posted, even if a profile is deleted. Thus, a general rule should be if one would not show his grandmother a post, it should be kept offline.
While the Internet allows users to meet new friends and connect with current ones, its social networking aspects are danger as well as an asset. Cyberbullying has arisen, which is defined as a growing trend of harassment through social networking sites or through devices like cell phones, long after school hours end.
According to isafe.com, “over half of adolescents and teens have been bullied online, and about the same number have engaged in cyber bullying while 25 percent of adolescents and teens have been bullied repeatedly through cell phones or the Internet.”
Not only are familiar peers an issue, but strangers become a larger concern due to the natural anonymity of the Internet. Social networking sites and chat rooms give users a false sense of security since there is no face to face contact. Predators prey on that naïvety.
Seventy five percent of children are willing to share personal information online, an eMarketer study shows, while 26 percent of online sex offenders used the victim’s social networking site to gain information, according to the Journal for Adolescent Health.
By no means should the Internet be shut down or never used. However, parents and children should know of the dangers surrounding the helpful and vital tools the Internet provides as well as the danger of spreading one’s information publicly.