During our Second Life class last week, a question was posed asking if we would be comfortable with our child using Second Life as a social outlet. I think this is a realistic question that many parents face, especially in today’s world of online social networking. An important question for parents to ask is what is the appropriate age to allow children to begin using the Internet as a social outlet? In addition, should children be allowed to explore social websites before being permitted to experience social settings in real life? Obviously, potential dangers existed online as well as in real life, but there may be some advantages to introducing children to the Internet first. I think the questions posed above will be answered differently by every parent. However, it’s important for the parents to realize that predators exist on the Internet, and to address the potential dangers with their children before going online.
Through my experiences with Second Life I have never encountered anyone behaving inappropriately towards me. Not even an invitation to take a walk. In my opinion, social activity on the Internet is always going to be safer than real life because if things get out of hand the computer can always be shut down. However, if things get out of hand in real life, it’s not as easy to escape the problem. Part of this decision as a parent will also depend on the child. It’s hard to believe that any child/teenager today is disconnected from the Internet, but there are those people who are not attracted to MySpace and Facebook. However, t case certainly represents the minority of the population. In fact, I think that so many kids are involved in social networking sites because their parents won’t let them interact in any other social settings.
When kids have the desire to act socially but are considered too young to live independent social lives, their alternative is online social networks. This is one huge difference between my generation and the generation of today’s teenagers. By the time the teenagers of today enter college they will be experts on social networking sites. The younger generation is living in an online culture that allows them to establish a lifestyle of living through multiple online social networks. By the time I was introduced to online social networking it seemed much less attractive to me as a 25-year-old, compared to had I been 13-years-old. Social networking sites will continue to be popular among the younger generation, and it’s the parents responsibility to inform their children of the potential dangers of living an online life.
No comments:
Post a Comment