The document discusses the impact of internet usage on child development, highlighting both positive and negative aspects. While the internet can enhance creativity and learning, excessive use may lead to detrimental effects on social, physical, and cognitive development, as well as exposure to harmful content like cyberbullying and pornography. Ultimately, parental guidance is crucial in mitigating these risks, making the internet either a beneficial or dangerous tool for children.

1. Does the Usage of Internet harm Child Development?
Is the internet the safest technology in the world? Should
parents have second thoughts before letting their children use
the internet? These kind questions always run through my mind
when someone refers about the internet, but I will explain what
the internet really is about. The internet is a global
communication interconnecting millions of computers. Children
use the internet for various reasons, but the most significant
reasons are for information, communication, entertainment and
school performance. According to Thompson S.H Teo study,
Internet users used the Internet mainly because they perceived
the Internet to be more valuable to their job tasks and
secondarily because it is enjoyable and easy to use (Omega,
27.1). The internet has many positive aspects, but it also seems
to have adverse effects too. Vint Cerf, the creator of the internet
predicted that this technology will affect the future and
developing areas such as artificial intelligence and child
development. Although the internet is the most useful
technology for child development, it also has a harmful effect
on social, physical and cognitive development of modern
children lifestyle.
Social development refers to an alteration in the social
structure of a social group or society to enhance the capacity of
a society in order to finish their objective. It has a target in
developing power to increase human activity. The internet can
improve children and their school-based education and can be
used as a tool for creativity and intellectual work in groups.
Also, Gonca Karayagiz said:
“Computers have occupied increasingly central roles in
children's world with the advance of technology. They have
proved to be an ideal companion for children in developing
and developed countries who spend most of their time at school
or home with computers. As a measure of development and
modernization, technology has made people's lives easier and

2. contributed positively to social well-being so far while it has
also brought about some problems and threats stemming from
irresponsible use of the internet”( Karayagiz).
Creativity, intellectual work in group, school-based learning
can be improved by the usage of the internet.
However, when excessively used, the internet can also take
children away from their usual life work such as chores,
homework, and engaging with family and friends. There are also
other dangerous concern involving the usage of internet
inappropriate content, such as violence, pornography and
abusive language. Pornography is one of the severe impacts on
child development. The erotic picture that has the intention to
release sexual behavior is known as pornography. Pornography
is an easy way harm children and their developing childhood.
Pedophile is a person who is sexually attracted to children and
many pedophiles is the one who indulge in making child
pornography. Pedophile uses a tool to demolish children’s
reticence and blackmail them in making child pornography. The
Law has tried their level best to remove pornography from being
release on the internet, but were unsuccessful. Many child using
the internet usually end up getting involved in public business.
As Lawrence Lessig quoted “The Internet created the possibility
of noncommercial publications of public domain works”, his
purpose was to explain how internet get people involved public
affairs (Lessig). Cyber bullying is another reason why the
internet harms children social development and maybe be fatal.
Hannah Smith a 14 year old teenager was the victim of cyber
bullying through the internet (Smith). Also, Gabrielle Molina a
12 year old hanged herself due to cyber bullying after a video of
her engaging in a fistfight with another classmate was uploaded
to YouTube(Molina).These were some of the examples that link
with Lessig quote about how the internet gets involved in public
affairs. So do you still think the internet is safe for our
children?
The usage of internet harms social development; however, it has
only little effect on the physical development. Physical

3. development is growth or development in the human body; it is
developing of bone, height, muscles and brain. Physical
development is one of the primary reasons which was influence
by the internet. The internet is mostly consisted to have quick
and rapid access to information about everything in the world.
Nowadays, most remain child home searching, playing games or
chatting with people rather than having a physical activity. This
may lead the children to have weak eyesight, weak spinal cord
and even be over weighted. One of the most common syndromes
that occur by using the internet is the information fatigue
syndrome. Information fatigue syndrome is the over expose to
media, information and technology. The result of this can cause
you to have an innumerable amount of headaches. From what we
have learned, the use of the internet have causes many children
to obesity, short height or usually wears glasses.
Cognitive development is the construction of thought processes,
memorizing, problem solving, decision- making, starting from
age of 4 till their adulthood. Cognitive mainly means how a
person thinking learns and understands about his or her world.
The developing of information processing, speaking languages,
memory and their intelligence are the main parts of cognitive
development. A child only develops cognitive by getting
involve, listening, talking to the surrounding people. The
internet harms the cognitive development as many people use
the internet and they intent to post flawless and inaccurate
information online. Even Professor Dimitri Christakis from
Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the University of
Washington has research that average 80% of children use more
internet than their parents. Consequence of these posting may
lead child to have difficulty determining the difference between
what’s real or not and what’s legal or illegal. For example,
Aseeva Olga Vladimirovna said:
“A distinctive feature of the present stage of development of
the youth social activity is using the opportunities
provided by a networked community, in
particular the global Internet network this is widely used in

4. society. However, modern society must be aware of the
danger of finding young people in the virtual space
for a long time and also modern society has to take
responsibility for the submitted information and
communication systems, cultural forms and
practices, models of behaviors”( Vladimirovna).
Nowadays, School have some online programs which get the
child indulge on the internet and most schools start to use the
internet as a cheat for research essay by plagiarizing some else
essay from the internet. This is not just involved in school, but
also becoming a habit in colleges as well. Using the internet
may cause a person to have cognitive impairment. Cognitive
Impairment is the loss or lack in developing cognitive skills.
The impact of media and technology use on kids has change the
way how children think about the world. It seems like only few
children can develop cognitive through the internet while other
children are destroying their capability of developing cognitive.
For Example, scientists discovered signs of atrophy of grey
matter in the brains of heavy internet users that grew worse over
time. This could affect their concentration and memory, as well
as their ability to make decisions and set goals. It could also
reduce their inhibitions and lead to ‘inappropriate’ behavior
(Harris).
For the youth, the internet involves higher numbers of
insecurity along with a multitude of chances. Inappropriate
material, sexual solicitation and cyber bullying are risk of usage
of internet. Despite these risks, the internet can be very helpful
for children in developing their cognitive skill for school
performance. The internet is certainly the place for children to
expand knowledge, reach new places and provide information
about the world, but there must be a reduction in usage of the
internet. Overall, parents are responsible for making the internet
either helpful or harmful. If a parent set limits on the internet
for the children it can be very useful, but if they don’t take care
of this serious matter then the internet is very dangerous for
children. Work Citation:

5. Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses
Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control
Creativity.New York: Penguin, 2004. Free Culture. Web. 27
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Vladimirovna, Aseeva Olga. "Internet Influence on the
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Smith, Dave “Teenager Hannah Smith killed herself because of
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<http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/aug/06/hannah-
smith-online-bullying>
Vawter, Eve. “Girl, Age 12, Hangs Herself After Being Called
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