Kids, parents and the net

Chitra Banerjee: One should always keep tabs on their children’s online activities. But it’d be unwise to keep kids away the internet. It’s important for children to keep themselves updated on what’s happening around the world. As a parent, I also want my daughter to use the internet to keep pace with the time, and the internet is a great help in this respect.

Moreover, unlike American parents, we don’t allow our kids to be online 24x7. So, in the context of our country, the chance of misusing the net is comparatively less.

Mita Bhattacharyya: I don’t really agree that the internet can pose any danger to kids’ well-being. My daughter, a final-year college student, has been using the internet for nearly four years now. I think the internet is beneficial in a number of ways. It keeps them knowledgeable about issues the local newspapers or textbooks don’t deal with. Again, networking sites like Facebook and Orkut help kids interact with people around them and extend their social circles. But parents must also supervise their children’s online activities to ensure that the internet is not misused.

Soma Bhattacharyya: We didn’t have any technological means to chat with friends online when we were kids. Now, we find our children surfing the internet and networking with friends regularly. But the use must be monitored by parents because while using the various social networking sites children might fall victim to unknown, unscrupulous people. So, there are enough reasons for parents to be anxious about children who are inordinately hooked up to the net.

Mousumi Saha: It may sound a bit harsh, but students shouldn’t be given access to the internet. Young people use the internet as a source of fun, often treating it as a friend. What they forget is that a machine can never be a friend.

Then there are porn sites that can easily divert young minds. In India, most parents still hold on to the old school of thought and are not that tech savvy. As a result, children often take advantage of their parents’ lack of technological knowledge by abusing the internet. So, I strongly believe that the internet shouldn’t be accessed by kids.

Amit Bhattacharyya: No, the internet doesn’t necessarily pose any threat to children. But there should be a proper balance between a kid’s online life and the life s/he spends as an ‘offline’, social being. Just chatting with friends throughout the day would certainly lead to anarchy in a child’s mind.

I think it’s time we allowed our children some latitude. Instead of dictating terms, we’d better monitor our kids’ activities, both online and offline.


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