EFFECT OF MOVIES, VIDEO GAMES AND INTERNET ON CHILDREN
7 min readMar 22, 2021
INTRODUCTION:
The side effects of constant media exposure in children continues to be a growing public health concern.
In the past 20 years, Internet usage among children has steadily increased. More than two-thirds of 8-year-old children go online each day, according to a study by the nonprofit Joan Ganz Cooney Center. The relationships between Internet use and physical or social aftereffects are complicated, but some facts are starting to reveal themselves. With fast internet and the advancement of gaming technology, the internet got bombarded with thousands of online games.
EFFECT OF MOVIES ON CHILDREN
IMITATION OF VIOLENCE:
Initially, we said that kids are very good at imitating adults. In fact, if you want a child to do anything you don’t need to tell them; you just need to do it in their viewing and they will imitate. It is easy for them to question and rebel against your instructions but they are too helpless to resist what they see.
As children grow, they adopt an instinct called observational learning where they start replicating what they watch in real life. For instance, it is easier for them to follow what they see Hulk Hogan or the Rock do on WWF than it is to follow its meaningless caution “don’t try this at home.” Contrary to the warning, kids are more zealous to do what they saw while forgetting all they heard. In most movies, all the negative and violent behavior is usually celebrated and rewarded, meaning, the kids will replicate it hoping to reap the same “benefits” in the real world.
INCREASED VIOLENT BEHAVIOR:
The second impact these movies have on the 21st century kids is the increase of violent behavior among kids. For instance, the US has experienced the highest cases of school shootings coming from young boys. Where did these kids watch shootings? Not at home or school, but in the movies they interact with. In an experiment conducted in the US, nursery kids were separated into two groups with one watching violent cartoons while others neutral ones. After some time, the ones who were exposed to violent movies showed violent behavior by breaking toys, fighting, and playing roughly. Those who watched mild ones showed the opposite by playing peacefully and cooperatively.
AN EXAGGERATED FEELING OF INSECURITY:
Additionally, when kids get exposed to violent movies, they develop a false sense of insecurity in the real world. The reason is that their mind is conditioned to think that the violence they watched in the movies is also in the real world. It is no wonder some of them start screaming in their dreams. Also, they develop the fear of walking out at night alone since they feel the same people they watched in the movies could attack them in the real world.
EFFECT OF VIDEO GAMES
With fast internet and the advancement of gaming technology, the internet got bombarded with thousands of online games. Even though online games are a fun way to socialize encouraging teamwork, it comes paired with risks of it own that parents need to be aware of. Without the right guidance and supervision, games can expose children to risks such as game addiction and addiction of any kind is harmful. Now that games come paired with the option of buying in-game perks, these perks are tempting and can only be bought with real tangible money. Children end up buying these perks blowing a hole in their parent’s pockets.
There have been cases around the world where young children would buy game credits online without even informing their parents. Parents not being as tech-savvy as their child would come to know of it only after a month or two when they have almost lost all their savings. These addictions are not only affecting the pockets of the parents, there are many more harmful effects of game addiction. There have been many cases where children committed suicide because of their inability to complete various tasks in-game. Blue Whale, a notorious game that forced children to commit suicide as a task, took the lives of many. One needs to understand that these problems arose because of the lack of proper supervision from parents. Parents should understand that taking care of their children even includes monitoring and supervising their activities and always help their children to understand the writers and wrongs of life. Activities and always help their children to understand the writers and wrongs of life.
EFFECT OF INTERNET
POSITIVE EFFECTS:
Decades ago, conducting research for a school project or paper meant making a trek to the public library and spending hours pouring over textbooks. Today, however, the Internet has opened up the portal to information like never before, and students are among the biggest beneficiaries of this open access. Since many public libraries offer free access to academic databases, kids need not leave their homes to conduct scholarly research or simply learn something new.
Engaging Learning Activities:
Although many have gained a bad rep, not all online computer games are bad for kids. In fact, some of them can be quite educational, so much so that many teachers routinely prescribe online play for kids who need remediation in skills such as multiplication, spelling, and more. Free sites like “www.brainpop.com”and “www.funbrain.com” offer learning games so that kids can practice new skills and have fun at the same time, whether at school or at home.
In addition to online learning games, there is also a host of websites and applications that provide tools for developing effective organizational and study skills. Evernote, for example, allows students to highlight text on a website and save their annotations to cloud-based notebooks for later reference. Websites like “www.quizlet.com” let users create virtual flash cards for easy studying on the go. Although some parents are fearful of the Internet because of the many threats lurking behind their computer monitors, not everything online is a negative influence. Instead, the Internet is a tool, and like any other tool, can be used to achieve good or do harm.
NEGATIVE SIDE OF INTERNET:
Anxiety, sadness and depression:
Kids or teens who spend most of their time in the virtual world gradually move away from the real world and start living in a world of fantasy. After a certain period, they become dependent on the Internet to feel upbeat. And, when they are unable to access the Internet, they start experiencing anxiety, sadness and depression.
Unable to keep schedules:
Teens use the Internet to do a lot of things like looking for information, corresponding, paying bills, and doing financial transactions. However, in the case of Internet addicts, they spend most of their time engaged in browsing, chatting or gaming, instead of doing what they are actually supposed to do. Also, they are unable to keep track of the time they spend in doing such activities. As a result, they are not able to keep up with their schedules or studies which is one of the bad effects of internet on students.
Sleep deprivation:
Most kids and teens nowadays own smartphones and/or tablets, which they carry with them wherever they go, even to the bed. They also use these devices to hook on to the Internet before going to sleep to catch up on what’s happening around them. While normal teens may log off after a while, those addicted to the Internet keep browsing for long hours. As a result, they suffer sleep-related issues like late sleep time, insufficient or restless sleep, and late waking time. This sleep deprivation/disturbance can also worsen or magnify symptoms of anxiety and depression.
