Influence of unrestricted Browsing on tweens

We’ve all heard the Internet be called “a really big city with no police”, and it's a scary place to let your kids loose unsupervised. If you're not concerned about your child's protection and the notion of invading your child's privacy irks you? well here are some statistics that will help put things into perspective!

The above are just some of the problems most commonly faced and reported by the younger generation:

1. Cyberbullying. Most kids who are harassed by cyberbullies suffer emotional distress but never tell their parents. Someone may be bullying your child – or your child may have been bullying someone else.
2. Sexting. Teens send nude pictures of themselves to others or think of it as a great prank to forward along with pictures of someone else.
3. Online Predators. The Internet is the #1 tool of child predators e.g pedophiles or kidnappers for finding and developing friendships with children.
4. Chatting. Children may chat with friends about illegal activities, suspicious behavior or even doing drugs. Peer pressure is always the culprit!
5. Depression. When faced with depression or suicidal thoughts, children are more likely to search on the internet or ask their friends than talk to you.
6. Unhealthy influence. Tweens are often influenced to do drugs, shoplift, by peer pressure, or by classifying it as cool!
7. Leak information. Tweens are more likely to unintentionally reveal information about themselves and their whereabouts than they should online, helping dangerous "digital strangers" find them in the real world.
8. Identity theft. Because they are prone to give out too much information, it's easy for someone to steal your child's identity to open up credit card accounts or other instances of fraud.
9. Viruses and malware. Kids can't always evaluate a trustworthy site, download, or app. They may unknowingly infect the computer.

Certain things shouldn't be posted online because they will harm your child's reputation or hurt their future chances for a job or college admission. What's more unrestricted access to the internet has shown to lead to unhealthy habits such as online gambling, drug abuse, or even porn addiction! These in turn lead to long-lasting physical, social and psychological problems for your child.

Tweens on average have a higher chance of posting or being accidentally exposed to such things!

Even though the internet has a good influence on education, as well as mental growth and economics. People are more doubtful of the internet’s impact on politics, psychological maturity and morality in particular. Exposure to violence on the internet has been consistently linked to antisocial behavior among youth. For example, violence victimization was found to be the single best predictor of violent behaviors for both boys and girls. (Blum, Ireland, & Blum, 2003)

Other than anti-social behavior there are many other habits that stem from inappropriate exposure on the internet, which have a detrimental effect on your child's future career. Here is a summarised list:

• Being a negative person.
• Are quick to anger.
• Prone to procrastination.
• Being defensive.
• Display a very lax moral code.
• Make rash decisions.

Did you notice the correlation in these habits? All of these habits stem from interactions that people have in their tween years!

The cause consequence relationship between the two lists that we have outlined is clear. These bad habits stem from problems faced by tweens on the internet, be it early exposure to porn or just a habit of procrastinating.

These bad habits are dreadful and have the capacity to spoil your child's complete career and future, so protect your tween from sites and habits that have a negative influence on them!