Teenagers in the Digital Age: Balancing Access and Responsibility

Sometimes I envy the teenagers of nowadays because life has experienced great improvement compared to my time, not that I am that old though, but now, we are fully into the internet age where most of our life's activities are now based on the internet. For teenagers, it has indeed had a positive impact on their study life, at the tip of their fingers, they are easily exposed to a wide range of information that might have taken years of experience for the older ones to come by.

The downside is that there is no filter most time, they are exposed to both the good and bad information present online which has led most of these teenagers astray at a very early age. It's not uncommon nowadays to see these teenagers engage in some unethical challenges on apps like TikTok, Facebook, etc It's so shocking how low these children can go for likes and comments.

I recently came by a young lady page where she made a video about getting her 13 year old niece a new phone as a form of encouragement, since most children of that age and even younger age have smart phones, but instead of using this gift to improve herself, she was caught online, doing the charger challenge, and now, a family meeting has been called to sanction her. At first, I was confused about what such challenge meant, I mean, charger is a tool we all use right, but when I went further the search bar, I was left in shock what a 13 years old could have the boldness to do, not forgetting the fact that the internet never forgets.

Acts like this make me scared of how the future will be and what will become of the forthcoming generation. Teenagers are not entirely mature and tend to act on impulse because they are easily influenced, the internet just happens to be a place of both good and positive influence, but trust the bad ones to be more enticing to them.

Truthfully, we've gone too far already, and can't even stop them from gaining access to the internet, some of them can even afford these gadgets themselves also courtesy of the internet, the best we can do is encourage everyone to put out quality content and also keep on advising our young ones, access online content without adult supervision. The best we can do is encourage content creators and influencers to incline towards ethical and educational content, and advise our young ones on how to navigate the online world responsibly. By doing so, we can only hope that they will make better choices and avoid the pitfalls that come with unrestricted internet access.

In conclusion, it is vital for us parents, guardians, and influencers to work together to promote positive online behavior and create a safer digital environment for teenagers. By promoting quality content and offering guidance, we can help shape the next generation's online experiences and ensure they are better equipped to handle the challenges that come with the digital age.

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