Unsupervised Internet access for children

The internet is the greatest tool we have today. It allows us to connect with each other with just a few clicks, serving as a platform for all our knowledge and creative expression. It becomes a collective brain, pulling from all our respective experiences.

However, in that boundless space, the powerful tools we’ve developed and the freedom of speech has also given an access and a platform to content which are unsuitable for a young audience. Although everyone deserves the freedom to express their thoughts, not everyone has developed the ability to make judgements accordingly and decide wisely for themselves.

Our children need our help to learn how to navigate the world. Teaching them critical thinking, kindness, and compassion for others and themselves require time and patience which parents may not be able to afford. With the ever-rising cost of living, the vast majority of families require both parents to work. As a result, children are left to caretakers who often need to split their attention among other kids or managing other tasks such as housework.

When children lack the ability to discern good and bad in the great grey sea of the internet, they firstly imitate funny pranks that are cleverly edited to appear perfectly harmless. One perfect example is the Hot Water Challenge, which went viral on YouTube. Born from a desire to fit in with a community, kids started to film themselves drinking scalding water through a straw or throwing it at their friends. Many have been injured, needing surgeries and skin grafts, and one has even died.

Adults watching such videos think it is clearly dangerous and that kids are clever enough to know. Unfortunately, the prefrontal cortex which controls reasoning, judgement and impulse control isn’t fully developed until the age of 25. In the process of becoming an adult, children inevitably make choices they will regret. But the saturation of tomfoolery that they consume in heaps and bounds everyday could very well end up in a mistake that can never be undone.

That’s not to say we must control them from having access to the internet. Children need to build connection with others and explore the world voraciously. However, adults must do their part in giving them the tools they need to safely make their own way in life.