by DJTJR

Created on: February 13, 2009   Last Updated: March 30, 2009

Children are becoming addicted to the Internet and for many, it is one drug that can not be beat. Not all children, but an alarming number of them are being swept up in this age of digital information. The fact of the matter is that today's kids arebecoming addicted to the Internet at an alarming rate and for many it is hurting there morals and characters to be so.

One could go so far as to say Internet addiction is becoming a social norm. Websites like Myspace, Youtube, and face book, are becoming so vastly popular many Kids can't help but to be addicted to them just in order to fit. Why not become part of a society where your judged by how many friends on a friends list or maybe are encouraged by others to place scantly dressed pictures and personal data for all to see on a profile page. What has become of the world, when instead of calling your best friend on the phone you send them a message electronically and wait around for hours to see if they get on and read it?

Websites like youtube.com are now becoming the center of culture. Animations like Charlie the Unicorn funny videos like Charlie bit me, have become well known and popular nation and even world wide. Unfortunately the desire to imitate everything they see is still a problem among many children. Too many videos on youtube are of underage girls dancing erotically to music or drunk idiots hurting themselves. This addiction to the world wide web is exposing many children to information too quickly. Often on the web there just aren't enough adults setting kids straight and too many teenagers causing trouble.

However, it is too bias to claim all kids are addicted, or even that all kids whom are addicted to the web are even negatively affected by it. While the web can be a large waste pool of negative influence, it is also a wealth of posative knowledge, friendly social networking, and even gateways to future employment. With all the benefits of the Internet it is only natural that many parents fail to see any harm in there child's "slight" addiction to the Internet. And as is stated above, it is becoming a social norm as computers become a more important tool in our day to day lives. Perhaps it isn't so important whether or not a child is addicted to the web and more important that parents know exactly what there kids are doing there.

Many computers have optional parent controls that allow parents to block the children form entering certain types of sites, or even individual ones. Such programs are unfortunately not used enough by today's parents, who in many cases are caught up on computers themselves. Once again, social norm. All one needs to do is google search parental controls and you will be provided with any number of companies that can help with programs for tracing child activity and if necessary limit time spent on the Internet.

Ultimately, yes children are becoming addicted to the Internet it happens all to often that you see girls crying because of not being allowed on the web, but it is up to the individual as to weather or not the internet is a good or a bad thing. It is important to embrace our new age of technology, but how do we keep our children's morals safe? Its hard to say, but in time as the web evolves we are sure to see a continued trend of increased Internet activity among all age groups.

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