Essay Sample on Tech Savvy Kids: Unforeseen Challenges and Parental Monitoring

Introduction

Children today have early exposure to technology and technology devices. The exposure has its benefits in that children being tech savvy at an early age and can flow with ever-changing technological innovation characterizing the industry. However, children engagement with technology is interesting in that it presents unforeseen challenges such as overuse and addiction-related side effects. It this stands out to reason that impact on children can be huge and monitoring by parents is well informed. The presentation will address the restriction of technology use through written materials in the form of an essay.

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The history of restricting children can be traced to the early 1990s after the internet boom and the PC games that bubbled up everywhere. Parents were concerned children were spending too much time on internet sites. However, a serious approach to technology restriction in children came after a wave of suicide cases among children were reported between 2007 to 2014. By then, enough literature had linked online gaming to addiction and depression. The most notable case being that of Brandon. Campbell and Gatehouse (2008) narrate the story of Brandon who goes missing after his parents took away the Xbox video game system. They also link the story to that of a British boy who commits suicide after his father took away his Wii game. This incidents points to a growing concern over computer overuse and urges. The issue of restricting children from technology use borders along with the realization of increasing cases of addiction, cyberbullying, and suicide. Children use of technology involves carelessness and lack of knowledge. Carelessness is depicted by a case of Henry Tattersall, a 13-year-old schoolboy who hung himself after he racked up a bill amounting to $420 on his parent's credit card by downloading games on his Xbox. There are similar cases of children spending money on internet sites wastefully.

This topic compares with drug and substance abuse. They are related in that both have similar effects. Drugs and substance abuse is associated with addiction. It is also related to financial consequences concerning purchasing the drugs as well as health consequences. They also affect society as finances are set aside for the rehabilitation of addicted persons and health programs. Money that could have gone into more useful social programs. The relationship is confirmed by the World Health Organization (2018) which classified gaming addiction as a medical condition. They recognized the disorder based on the fact of lessened control over gaming. Increased priority is given to gaming over other actions to the degree that it takes preference over other interests and everyday responsibilities. They also argued that the disorder was associated with the intensification of gaming despite undesirable consequences. Though internet overuse has not been classified as a disorder, it has the same characteristics as gaming disorder that calls for restriction among children as they are more likely succumb to the negative influence.

There exist many policies informing on technology use among children. The U.S. Department of Education (2016,) the policy document, tells that families and early educators need to take into account the early setting targeted at children aged 2-5. The policy suggests that one hour of technology use is appropriate per day. The policy emphasizes on time as an element that should be factored on technology use in children at this age range. It also notes that parents should take into account the quality of content, the environment of use and opportunities the technology affords to support or improve relationships. For children aged 6-8 years that effort by parents should be directed at making children use technology as a tool to discover and become active content creators. The Children Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is an internet safety policy that calls for restrictive internet use among children. The approach taken by the policy includes filtering or blocking of access to certain materials on the internet such as pornography and violence.

Moving forward, research on children's use of digital technology should focus to recognize where to draw the line between harmful and healthy use (UNICEF, 2017). This would require an individual approach where each child and their life background is considered independently. Moreover, efforts should be dedicated to maximizing on the positive impact on younger children such as providing necessities and supervision of a different style rather than from peers. In the future it is likely that technology will form an integral part of children lives; it thus follows that blanket-suggestions and strategies are unlikely to be effective (UNICEF, 2017). Moreover, research on technology use in children should focus on answering whether there exist positive effects of technology use on the child if they were used more regularly. The study should look at the general children's time use to ascertain that the time spent on digital technology has a negative or positive influence on child wellbeing. If gaps negative relationship is established, the study should advocate policies with emphasis on time restriction rather than content as content regulating measures already exist.

References

Campbell, C., & Gatehouse, J. (2008, November 10). What Happened to Brandon? Retrieved from https://archive.macleans.ca/article/2008/11/10/what-happened-to-brandon

Daily Mail. (2017, February 27). Boy commits suicide over Xbox games bill. Retrieved from https://gulfnews.com/world/europe/boy-commits-suicide-over-xbox-games-bill-1.1296704

U.S. Department of Education. (2016, October). Early Learning and Educational Technology Policy Brief. Retrieved from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/guidance_brief_final3.pdf

UNICEF. (2017, February). How does the time children spend using digital technology impact their mental well-being, social relationships, and physical activity? Retrieved from https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/Children-digital-technology-wellbeing.pdf

World Health Organisation. (2018, September). Gaming disorder. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/features/qa/gaming-disorder/en/