Psychological Effects
Children are exposed while they are on the internet, they are exposing themselves to the content they are not ready to interiorize. This content can have a serious impact on the way they perceive life and the way they behave. In addition to this, children have become targets, their innocence and eagerness to develop friendships can take them to expose themselves to dangerous situations.
Excessive Media Usage
As time passed and media became an indispensable part of our life, more people became absorbed by it. What actually creates the bigger concern is that children at very young ages have unrestricted access to this media.
Now as more time goes by it's being found that children are using devices more each year this comes with some serious risks. It's going to be extremely important to educate the future generation on how to balance their time on the internet.
Pornography
This exposes children to content they are not ready to see, one of the most propense elements that kids are exposed to is sex, sex is all around the media.
“Research shows that children who have sex by age 13 are more likely to have multiple sexual partners, engage in frequent intercourse, have unprotected sex, and use drugs or alcohol before sex.”(Ross, C. Carolyn,2012).
In the graph on the left, it is presented the different effects early sex exposure has on children. It is clearly shown that this has an influence on behavior, also how children exposed to early sex are most propense to have multiple sex partners.
"According to some studies, early exposure (by age 14) to pornography and other explicit material may increase the risk of a child becoming a victim of sexual violence or acting out sexually against another child.”(Ross, C. Carolyn,).
It is important to have in mind that there are other factors that can affect children's psychology online. Early teens feel the need to feel accepted so they create bonds online that can put their life at risk.
Child Predators
Children at such a young age simply don't have the necessary skill to understand how to act on the internet. It's especially scary when it is so easy to disguise and attack when people hide behind a screen. This makes it easier for murderers and sexual predators to target their victims. They use the internet as a tool to lie and hunt.
“Children may be victimized through the production, distribution, and consumption of sexual abuse material, or they may be groomed for sexual exploitation, with abusers attempting to meet them in person or exhort them for explicit content."(Unicef).
Understood.org put together a list of steps that should be taken to protect children from putting themselves in harms way on the internet.
Talk to your child about online predators. ...
Discuss risky behavior. ...
Spell out what a risky relationship is. ...
Talk about the dangers of chat rooms. ...
Warn your child about online flirting. ...
Bring up sexy selfies. ...
Be clear about offline safety rules, too.
Consider surveillance software
Tell your child they can always talk to you