Digital Dangers of Children on the Internet

The internet can be a very dangerous place for children as they are navigating the worldwide web. The internet is full of images, videos, and information that is inappropriate for children to see. Children can frequently encounter harmful content, even with features, like parental controls, safe search, and content filters. Children can easily encounter inappropriate content online, predators, and online scams, while innocently exploring the internet. They can go from watching their favorite cartoon online to seeing sexual content without trying to come across inappropriate content.

An example of a dangerous internet site that I can think of is Omegle. Omegle is a free online chat website that allows people to talk to strangers without the need to register. As a kid, I used Omegle with my friends at sleepovers and had fun talking to random people. Although, we frequently encountered inappropriate content from the people we met on the site. Sometimes my friends and I would see sexual images and hear rude language. Whenever we saw someone being inappropriate, we would not talk to them and clicked the skip button to talk to the next person that popped up on the screen. Omegle is not a safe website because young kids can end up seeing nudity or sexual content, like I did when I used the site with my friends. Children can easily encounter inappropriate content internet websites, like Omegle.

Young children frequently encounter predators on the internet as well. There are many adults who use the internet to target children for sexual and violent purposes. Internet predators often pretend to be another child on a digital platform and communicate with innocent children to collect personal information about them. The predator will start asking about the child’s interests, hobbies, personal photographs, and private chats. Then, the predator will gradually introduce sexual content in their conversation and may force the child to do dangerous tasks. Communicating with internet predators and following through with what they say will cause a child to develop psychological problems in the future.

The internet can also lead to children facing online scams. Children are young and naïve, which can cause them to fall for online scams, such as online shopping scams, “free” service scams, and fake contests. An example of an online scam that could easily convince a child is an offer for a free iPad. The child does not know that the iPad is not actually free and clicking on the ad can lead to danger. The scam tricks children into clicking on the ad and thinking they will receive something, so the scammer can give their technological device a virus and hack the technology.

Children should be monitored by their guardians, while navigating the internet, so they do not fall in danger when they surf the web. The article “The Politics of ‘Platforms’” by Tarleton Gillespie said that YouTube made a recent announcement saying, “it would strengthen its restrictions on sexually suggestive content and profanity, by….the removal of videos deemed inappropriate according to a new standard; second, the assignment of certain videos to the adult category, which limits what under-aged, registered users can see and requires all users to click an assent to watching objectionable content”. These strategies are great ways to help protect innocent children from graphic content that exists on the internet. A lot of children watch entertaining videos on YouTube, so it is important that YouTube monitors what these children are watching to ensure they are safe on the social media platform. Hopefully not just YouTube, but the entire internet can become a safer place for children in the future.

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