For years humanity has been making use of the internet for the fast sharing of information. The collective knowledge of man can even be held in your hand at this point while using a Smart-phone. Although there are many beneficial aspects, there are things and people out on the 'net that pose a problem to our children. Internet age restrictions should be put into place on various websites that pose the risk of exposing children to disturbing or inappropriate imagery and dangerous individuals. In this paper, I will be an advocate for placing age restrictions, but showing all sides of the argument. Though the internet can be very helpful in a multitude of situations, it can be a dangerous place for the younger users. One of the main dangers of the internet for them is Cyber Bullying. Cyber bullying is getting bullied over the internet. It includes sending hateful messages to kids, spreading rumors and lies about them, creating specific websites just to taunt them, or even send them death threats. What makes this worse is that all of this can be done anonymously by the perpetrator. Even though it is still called bullying, it 's s step up from your normal school bullying. There 's no emotional filter for the bully – where some bullies may stop what they 're doing or seriously think about it because of the emotional response from the kid being bullied such as tears or faces, bullying over the internet doesn 't give the bully a chance to see the emotional reaction from the other child. In an article by Puresight.com, with information taken from a 2009 Study by AP-MTV on Digital Abuse, they list some of the reasons why cyber bullying is such a big issue, with one of them being the permanence of the harmful messages. On permanence, Puresight.com said; “The insults, comments, or images can be preserved by the person who was bullied by others so that the victim may read or view them over and over again and the harm is re-inflicted with each
Cited: Burgert, Natasha. "4 Reasons Parents Should Enforce the Age Restriction on Social Media." KevinMD.com. KevinMD.com, 21 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Oct. 2014. Lev-Ram, Michal. "Zuckerberg: Kids under 13 Should Be Allowed On Facebook." Fortune Zuckerberg Kids under 13 Should Be Allowed OnFacebook Comments. Fortune.com, 20 May 2011. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. "Many Under-13s 'using Facebook '" BBC News Technology. BBC, 19 Apr. 2011. Web. 1 Oct. 2014. Protalinski, Emil. "Facebook: No Single Solution for Implementing Age Restrictions | ZDNet." ZDNet. N.p., 7 Sept. 2011. Web. 31 Oct. 2014. Puresight.com Staff. "The Dangers of Cyberbullying." Parental Control. Puresight.com Staff, 2009. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.