Growing Up Online

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The Video "Growing Up Online" on PBS Frontline was a video about how the the new generation of kids are all growing up with the internet at their disposal. It touches on the subject of whether or not the internet is a good thing or a bad thing by interviewing multiple families about their experiences. In most cases the parents were against it and the kids were for it.

The internet is a place with no boundaries and no rules. Anything can be said, read, and seen. Obviously kids are ecstatic over this freedom available to them, and obviously parents are frightened, and for good reason. The internet had negative side effects on many of the kids featured in this video. Talking trash is easier online than in person, so groups of girls who had been fighting online for weeks eventually got into a brawl at school in the cafeteria that everybody was able to see because it was filmed on multiple cell phones and put up on YouTube. Another self conscious girl used the internet to look up details about anorexia with her spare time.

The repercussions of the internet were much more sever in one kids case though. In school this boy was bullied, and if it wasn't for the internet he could just go home after school and be safe, but just like most other kids he went home and logged on to his facebook or myspace where the harassment just continued. At the age of 13 he killed himself. When his father looked on the boy's computer for clues he saw all the tormenting messages, and that he had been looking up many things about death and suicide. The boy had also been talking to another kid online about about his self destruction who was convincing him to kill himself. The internet may not have been the only reason that the boy committed suicide, but it was definitely a catalyst.

The overall message of "Growing Up Online" is that the internet is here to stay and despite the dangers of it the best thing to do is to educate kids on how to be safe online. Attempting to hide them from it will only make them more naive and vulnerable. I agree with this completely. In my opinion the internet is one of the greatest resources we have right now and if it is used well then it can be extremely useful. We're using the internet right now anyway right, and how awesome is that.