Educate to Mitigate by Sohom Sarkar

The world has become digital. Internet has reduced the world to a global village. When humans had first envisaged the concept of Internet or World Wide Web, they could have barely predicted the creation of a new wave of criminal activity approaching the world. A platform where criminals can also work from home.

The access to Internet is much more powerful than it apparently seems. Any information in the world is just a click away. Internet has not only become a part of our education, but it has become a part of our lives. Therefore it is of paramount importance that we teach the children the judicious use of this resource.

The two major stakeholders who have the maximum role to play in a child’s life are parents & teachers. They decide the future of a child. They impart moral values, academic education, life-lessons etc. But it is important to teach them about internet safety and other protocols.

A child/teenager is often very curious to explore certain things and clarify a lot of doubts they have about life on the internet because they are ashamed of asking their parents about it. The problem with that is the internet does not filter the search according to the needs of the child. It cannot possibly give them the exact amount of knowledge they require at that point in life. They are bombarded with unfiltered content and tends to confuse or traumatize the child.

The internet has content about narcotic substances, pornography, heinous crimes, terrorism, fake beauty standards etc. And the curiosity makes them search about all these and they are brainwashed into falling for a system that portrays the perfect world and justifies all the negative.
Therefore it becomes important that the child should get these answers from the parents or teachers.

The child almost every time will ask the parents or teachers for the answer before venturing into finding it themselves. It is important not to trivialize their query or reprimand them for asking something they shouldn’t ask. Listening to the rants of the child therefore is very important. And not just a passive listener, it is important to actively take part in the conversation to try and gather as much information. Often the worries or questions of the child are mixed with a bag full of rants.

Lastly, technology can be used to defeat technology. Most devices now come with parental control and parents can monitor the online activities of a child even from a distant location. These features will help to create the internet a safe haven for the child and it can be used best for learning about all the good-things in the world.