SHOULD STUDENTS GET LIMITED ACCESS TO THE INTERNET?

The 21st Century and the advent of internet-enabled smart devices have transformed the ease of consuming information and interacting with the world.

Before that, internet access was considered a privilege rather than a right. But this ease has created a habit of dependence on technology.

Despite numerous technological advancements, we still struggle to resolve the basic question about limiting access to the Internet.

While in Corporates, Military, and Government Institutions, there is a strict screening of content that is accessible because of various intellectual, security, and confidential reasons.

The scope of access to the Internet among the next generation, i.e., students, is being debated a lot.

The Internet is a very important resource for students today because most of the studying material, latest news about exams, E-learning websites, and knowledge resources.

The Internet can provide unlimited resources for learning and studying, but it can also lead students into vulnerable situations.

The question of limited access to the Internet should consider academic performance and students' mental, social, and physical health.

We cannot deny that students need access to the Internet to learn the skills to widen the scope of their knowledge in this digital age.

As you must have heard the age-old saying, "With great power comes great responsibility." So any unregulated power or resource can harm in ways unimaginable.

Limiting access to the Internet for students has become essential to protect students' basic well-being, including channeling their focus on studies, protecting them from cyberbullying, and administrating the consumption of R-rated content.

Limiting this access will likely filter some of the information and uses of the Internet, which can prove to be detrimental to student success—but keeping the bigger good in mind and acknowledging the reality that students are often distracted by the Internet.

Schools and parents should take steps to regulate Internet access for students.

What Does Limited Internet Access For Students mean?

Limited internet access for students is a way to create a safe environment for them to learn.

It means creating an equal learning environment so that every student with access can simply look up content on the Internet without being at risk.

Limited internet access should not be implemented just in schools; it should be used in homes. Limited access will ensure that only relevant information is consumed, which will help protect the needs of students.

How limiting Internet Access will protect the interests of students?

Young adults' attention span has nowadays decreased, while their social media usage has exponentially increased.

Sites like Facebook and Instagram are so popular that even Elementary students have an account.

While the Internet has now become an important tool for many students, whether it is for research purposes or watching videos, lectures, or reading articles.

Limiting access will help protect students from the harms of Unlimited and uncensored Internet.

Bullying

Bullying has been around for many years in many different forms. Typically in verbal or physical forms, but nowadays, bullies are using the Internet in hopes of not getting caught.

If access to the Internet becomes limited, students will be less prone to use it to harm others. Limited access will also minimize cyber trauma or cyber rumors among students.

Gaming Addiction

Online games are becoming addictive to teenagers. Students are spending hours after hours playing PUBG, LUDO King, and other games, wasting their precious time that they should use for other productive work.

Spending hours playing online games can drastically inhibit the physical development of a child.

In Taiwan, a case happened where a student died because he played an online game continuously for two days without eating anything.

There are endless cases like this that remind us how important it is to limit internet access for students.

Family Life

This is the most serious problem among students today. They spend the maximum part of their day on the Internet and hardly interact with their family, leading to weak family bonds.

Limiting Internet and technological use will help students get closer to their families.

Adult Websites

The Internet has all kinds of stuff; good, bad, and ugly students can easily get introduced to porn websites and get addicted later.

The sexual predators chase young school boys and girls and pretend to have the same hobbies, and finally lure them into the world of pornography. These crimes are another reason to limit Internet access for students.

Physical Harms

With the excess of the Internet, students are spending hours in front of their computers. It can lead to back pain, muscle weakness, eye problems, and other posture-related issues.

All these issues directly affect studies. Limiting the usage of the internet will protect them physically.

Lack of social life

A student needs to have a social life, not a social media life. Making friends and having face-to-face interactions have been lost somewhere.

The Internet is famous for meeting new people, making new friends, and getting addicted to messaging and virtual communications, which affect social life. Due to this, students lack the confidence to have face-to-face communication.

It is important to limit internet access for the students to save their social life as human beings are social animals, not just Instagram usernames.

Cheating

The students getting excess of the Internet can lead to cheating. They use search engines to find the answers during tests, which leads to false results, limiting students from achieving better grades with their hard work.

The reduction in internet use can lead to awareness among students and prevent the cheating problem.

Fraud

Dangerous games like Blue Whale, Momo, etc., are also part of the Internet. They target students and young children to lure them into doing useless tasks and killing themselves in the end.

They make friends with the students and, after getting all the information and understanding their weaknesses, attack them emotionally and blackmail them.

Nothing is more important than saving the students from getting lured by frauds, cheating, and getting addicted to pornography. They need to have a normal physical and social life.

Most importantly, students should focus on their studies rather than anything else. Schools and parents can achieve all this only by reducing the internet access for the students.

If we encourage students to search for books rather than the Internet for everything, it can lead to a huge change.

How to implement such a crucial change?

1. Create a schedule that dictates the use of the Internet. The goal is to have limited hours of internet time, so students are not distracted from their studies.

2. Introducing alternative ways to work on assignments and learning like offline computers, databases, notebooks, and libraries should be stressed.

Some of the biggest sites like YouTube have been rolling out new measures for parents and young people to deal with harassment and inappropriate content.

Facebook has been trying out a new set-up that lets kids access their accounts from a parent's phone or tablet instead of having access to their phone.

The Internet needs to be a safe, educational space for students. Providing limited Internet access will enable students to be more creative and think outside the box.