I started an article a few days ago about how kids addiction to smart phones is getting out of hand, how it has affected their learning and I promised to write the concluding part of the article today which has to do with outside how it is affecting their learning
Kid's exposure to the Internet and smart phones without their parent's supervision can be harmful to them in so many ways, most of these effects sometimes become an addiction or even affect their journey in life.
Pornography
Watching pornography is one thing that kids get attracted to once they reach puberty, they easily lay their hands on the porn video and images which triggers their urge for sex. In the end, it becomes uncontrollable, they begin to have this sexual anxiety that can make them get wild as they grow.
Gone are the days when humans reach puberty at the age of 18 years, kids today reach puberty at the age of 12 or even less. They see themselves as grown-up because of their growth, size, or whatsoever as to do with puberty getting into their head, and at that point, they start demanding privacy which allows them to do or check out silly things.
In 2019, I saw statistics about how the pornography industry has grown huge with teenagers bypassing the security which has to do with just input age above 18 years when they are barely 14 years.
Evil Virtual Friends and Bad Influences.
This is another thing kids get exposed to when they are been allowed to roam the internet without supervision. Unlike in reality where you can restrict your kids to who they can hang out with, it is difficult to know everyone your kids interact with within the virtual world.
There are lots of adults pretending to be kids in the virtual world, they look for kids they can brainwash and make them victims of numerous evil acts out there. Some of these kids are unfortunate and became a monster they weren't born to be.
In 2011, a girl of fifteen was abducted in the community where I grew up. She was missing for over three months before she was found sick and pregnant but fortunately, the culprit was apprehended and brought to justice. She explained how she has been going to the cyber cafe to talk to a guy she met online and she uses her mom's java phone to access her Facebook secretly.
They planned to meet and she didn't inform anyone, the guy lied that he has strike a deal with his dad driver to pick her up and she felt comfortable not knowing that the grown-up man of over 40 years of age was the real face behind the 18-year-old guy she has been talking to. The man acted as a driver to pick her up and talking to the man was all she remembered in the old car he brought, she woke up in the middle of nowhere.
She was forced to do crazy things and it affected her life completely even though she was able to put the broken piece of her life together and move on.
Aside from this true life story, there are lots of kids that fall victims as prey regardless of their gender. Kids are been lured into drugs, sex, cultism, and other crazy things through the internet and it gets disastrous when they get addicted
Some parents don't know they are at risk of some things with giving their kids excess freedom to the Internet, how is that even possible?
Imagine there is a hacker or let me use the word stranger trying to access your privacy and has been finding it difficult, do you know they can get your kids to give them everything they want through chatting and simple interaction.
Kids are easily manipulated and out of ignorance, they can make terrible mistakes like releasing passwords, giving out credit card codes, sending information about the family, giving out the house security details, and others.
No doubt, the smartphone, and internet have been very good learning tools for kids especially during the pandemic when they have to learn mostly through the internet but how much freedom do you give them to check out or explore the internet.
Sometimes it is not the kid's fault, there are times when they just click on some illegal ads that take them to things that trigger their curiosity. As parents, we have a lot of work to do and we must be very smart and observant of the things our kids find interest in when handling a smartphone or surfing the internet.
They can't always have what they want, set rules, inculcate discipline that has to do with restrictions to smart phones and the Internet, remember that whatever they do or become will either be a joy or pain in our heart.
Doing the right thing with them also means preparing for our future. Thanks.
I strongly agree with you sir. Our children nowadays strongly need guidance when it comes to using smartphones and internet. They usually copy what they saw in the internet. I heard many young ones who unstoppably cussing because they learn it on different videos they watched. This kind of behavior is very alarming.