Digital media has changed many things in the lives of children; for instance, before the emergence of these platforms, learners would go to the library regularly. Again, every child had to wait for their parents to print photos to see themselves, and there was nothing like gaming websites. Earlier before when our parents were children, they could only play basic arcade games, but today their children enjoy internet-enabled devices, that can handle games. Moreover, when communicating with a person in the far distance, the only method of reaching them was through a letter to which it took long before receiving a response. However, the children of these parents are now enjoying instant messaging and replies.
The children for this generation have deeply been affected by the digital media as a result of the availability of technological devices. For instance, in the U.S forty-two percent of kids below eight years have televisions in their bedrooms while twenty-nine have DVD players, four percent have computers while eleven percent have video game consoles. Children at the age of two spend fifty-three minutes daily watching TVs as compared to twenty-three minute they use trying to read.
Nation perspectives
The involvement of children in the digital media makes them develop some retrogressive behaviors that include inappropriate sexual acts, privacy violation, cyber-crimes as well as diminishing ambitions among other. In the U.S., most people have the perspective that the use of digital media in children is dangerous. Seventy-Three percent of guardians claim that they would prevent their children from watching TVs excessively, and at least two-thirds try to talk to them about the possible dangers of these devices and platforms (Wallace, 2013).
From these details, it is clear that media and technology would harm the attention span of children as forty-two percent of American believe that young users of technology shall be easily distracted by 2020. Moreover, teachers feel that the technology has already destroyed the attention span of many children.
In the U.K, almost a third of children under the age of six years had once used the internet, and over a third of those aged below fifteen years are heavy users. Some of the effects that these children have experienced include cyber-bullying and harming their wellbeing with obesity (Campbell, 2017). Due to such adverse scenarios, many U.K citizens do not find digital media as fit for their children; however, parents cannot prevent them from engaging with these media as it would create negative curiousity.
South Korea and China also identified the possible dangers of digital media and had deemed the internet addiction among children a threat to the public health. Moreover, these countries have laid plans to combat the issue, which includes beginning treatment centers as well as preventing children from accessing the gaming websites at a specific time of the day (Robinson, 2015).
The change has been negative
The above three countries believe that digital media is a danger to the children and governments should control it, or parents should commit much time guiding their children on how to use digital media. According to a study in the U.K., conducted in people aged between fourteen and twenty-four years, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat impacted negatively to their wellbeing and brought issues such as increased levels of depression, loneliness, anxiety, and poor body image (Royal Society for Public Health, 2017). The above information indicates that digital media has many adverse and costly effects on children, and therefore, better mechanisms should be laid to protect them from these emerging electronic devices and the internet.
References
Campbell, D. 2017. British teenagers among world's most extreme internet users, report says. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/30/british-teenagers- among-worlds-most-extreme-internet-users-report-says
Robinson, M.2015. Korea’s internet addiction crisis is getting worse, as teens spend up to 88 hours a week gaming. Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/south-korea- online-gaming-addiction-rehab-centers-2015-3?r=UK"IR=T
Royal Society for Public Health, 2017. Status of Mind: Social media and young people’s mental health. Retrieved from: https://www.west-info.eu/instagram-is-the-most-dangerous- social-network- for-teenagers/rsph-yhm-social-media-mental-health-report-2/
Wallace, B. 2013. The Effects of Media and Technology on Young Children in the U.S. [INFOGRAPHIC]. Retrieved from: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/effects- media-and-technology-young-children-us-infographic
