A Safe Playground for Kids?

Spending hours in front of a computer has become a phenomenon of modern children in this information age. There are many possibilities how computer and Internet can be an interesting playground for the children. From playing the computer game, doing Internet surfing, chatting with friends, watching movies at Youtube and playing online game, there are millions of possibilities that children can do using these electronic media.

Giving children access to computer and Internet can often be the easiest way for making the children happy and giving the parents to a bit of time for themselves. However, parents should remember that these media are not always the safest playground for them.

According to the Department of Health Australia, children 5-12 years old are recommended to have physical activity. Children need at least 60 minutes and up to several hours of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day. Children should not spend more than two hours a day using electronic media for entertainment, such as: computer games, Internet and TV, particularly during daylight hours. Furthermore, from the health perspective, sitting too long in positions that are not natural for the body can cause repetitive stress injury.

From social perspective, children do not meet people physically on the Internet and possibly get physically injured, however, there is currently an emerging trend of cyber bullying of children - bullying through a computer or other communication device.

Recent studies found that 8 percents of children users have received harassing computer pictures or messages and 6 percents were bullied by mobile phone. More boys were cyber bullies and more girls were cyber victims.

Frederick Zimmerman, an associate professor from the University of California, Los Angeles reminded that parents could help reduce the risks by having knowledge of what their kids doing alone in their rooms.

The impacts on what children have encountered, learnt, watched, engaged on these media are also something that parents should concern about. Communication and good relationship between parents and children play a very important to tackle the changes and trends in this information age.