At what age would you give your child their first device? Seven? Twelve? The debate of when it is best to give a child access to the internet is extremely important in today’s society with the newest generation, Generation Alpha (also referred to as “IPad Kids”) growing up. But, the answer to that question is clear as day. 

The internet is being used much more in daily life than it was a decade ago. After the outbreak of COVID-19 and the lockdown, IPads were largely used to host online schooling and video chats for teachers to give lessons. In the cases of younger children, their learning was delayed as online teachings don’t do much for children still learning to read and write. This does not aid the fact that at the moment, reading-comprehension skills of children in the United States are as low as they have ever been and continue to plummet with each incoming grade. Increasing screen time for children won’t solve this crisis, in fact, it can add more issues to the bunch.

In the time Generation Alpha spent without schooling, they also didn’t have much freedom to go outside due to the pandemic. Instead, most children were subject to spend time watching their television or tablets while their parents worked from home, unable to provide them with the learning they should have received. If anything, children were given access to online videos that gave them the same lessons classrooms would without needing to be at risk. An example of this was Cocomelon, a kids YouTube channel that evolved into a television show. It was an easy decision for the parents to make – something that would keep their kid occupied and keep their developing brain stimulated while the parents worked. Yet still, it was too good to be true. According to parents.com, a website whose goal is to educate parents on different aspects of raising children, the fast pace of CoComelon could be overstimulating for children’s minds. “In 2011, researchers found that watching nine minutes of fast-paced programming could impair a child’s executive function, which is the set of cognitive skills needed for self-control and behavior management.” If this isn’t already a big enough issue for children, more is to come.

Most schools have set their devices to only show appropriate content for children, and some parents have parental controls. Still, even media made for children can have flaws. Some “educational” or “kids” videos on YouTube and Youtube Kids have deceiving thumbnails and titles, but when viewed reveal content that shouldn’t be exposed to kids. YouTube channels “TTNERF” and “Elsagate” are aimed for children, yet constantly represent subjects like gang violence, sexual harassment, kidnapping, and more taboo categories. Thumbnails for compilations of kids’ shows on YouTube also often display weird and misleading images to lure kids in, involving pregnant characters, violent attacks and female characters in promiscuous poses with exaggerated features. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

Back during 2018, the “Blue Whale” and the “Momo” challenges surfaced, both of which contained disturbing content for children. These challenges were prominent in messaging or videos, where children would be prompted to complete certain tasks or receive threats to themselves or about their families/gory, unnerving images. Some of these tasks involved harming themselves or others, which many children did as they are naturally gullible. A very memorable example was the Slenderman killing, where teenage girls Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser lured their friend, Payton Leutner, into the woods and stabbed her 19 times to appease a fictional character by the name of “Slenderman.” With proper monitoring (or simply a lack of internet access) this kind of horrid event  could have been prevented. 

With currently developing minds, children are easy to shape and manipulate. They mirror the actions of any model figure they see, and in some cases of neglect or abuse, the models either present bad behavior or aren’t there to teach the child what is socially acceptable. With the latter, children may resort to the internet to find the answers to the things they are curious about, from meeting other adults or searching things they shouldn’t. Both of these processes lead the child down a dark, dark path.

When being neglected or lacking a parental figure, children will often look for the comfort of a parent in other adults. Predators online often look for prepubescent children, as old as 12 to converse with and lure into meeting up. Without supervision, this is easily executable by a child and can lead to worse situations such as human trafficking, which happens to about 109,000 children yearly in America. 

Overall, the internet is a dangerous place that children shouldn’t have access to for the sake of their own protection. The dangers range from mental impairment to kidnapping and trafficking while the benefits are minimal and easily diminished by the risks. At the end of the day, children should really only be given access to the internet when they are old enough to fully understand the dangers and avoid them properly.