Young and Curious

We talked about DOPA which is the Deleting Online Predators Act in class. 

If this law was passed it would work like the Child Internet Protection Act  which is any institution such as schools and public libraries would get discounted Internet access by giving them cheaper rates to encourage the spread of Internet especially to schools. What DOPA would say is that any computer connected to Internet in these institutions would have to block social networking sites. However, many individuals protested this because the people who would use these institutions to find jobs and use social networking sites to find connections wouldn’t be able to have access due to this law. 

I understand why individuals would want to protest against this because not everyone has easy access to the Internet or the money to pay for it. However, I think that in these institutions they should have designated areas where they can sign-in to work on those specific tasks so everyone can be happy. I believe that laws in general designed to protect children online is important because I think it is necessary that kids have legal protection.  One reason I think this is  because children  are very curious and another reason is that their brains are not fully developed to make the correct decisions and may not be educated enough to know what is right from wrong. If they were limited to what they can do and research online then I believe that this would benefit them from finding out information that is not necessary for them to know at their age, and protect their overall well-being.

According to Kid's Health the Internet can be a great place for kids to find useful information for schoolwork or communicate with their teachers or friends. However, the Internet can also pose hazards such as inappropriate content. Parents do not always have the time to monitor their children and they can’t choose who their friends are which leads to bad choices and decisions made online. Kids are being exposed to these things a lot sooner therefore it is important to educate your children when they are online because what they do on the Internet is not always made aware to the parents.  Although it is easy to get around many of these laws, children may become more aware that this is a serious topic and may be effective to more children rather than none without a law.