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Teenagers and the Internet

theguardian.com

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Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#21

Post by cm2012 »

navait wrote: post #14

It's unfortunate that answers to internet pornography always come in the form of these unworkable filters. Politicians can only justify censoring pornography as "Parent's don't want their kids to see it!", rather than acknowledge it as a public health problem. After seeing some of my friends fall prey to porn addiction, I think the sheer amount of porn on the internet is a problem. When porn was something you had to…

While the evidence seems to suggest that some people do get addicted to porn, the vast majority do not.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#22

Post by 67726e »

unimpressive wrote: post #19
navait wrote: post #14

It's unfortunate that answers to internet pornography always come in the form of these unworkable filters. Politicians can only justify censoring pornography as "Parent's don't want their kids to see it!", rather than acknowledge it as a public health problem. After seeing some of my friends fall prey to porn addiction, I think the sheer amount of porn on the internet is a problem. When porn was something you had to…

>a better answer would be to discuss pornography addiction as part of the sexual education curriculum, but too many people would consider it "teaching children porn". Sort of like how DARE teaches children drugs?

About that....

> the program was sometimes counterproductive in some populations, with those who graduated from D.A.R.E. later having higher than average rates of drug use

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Abuse_Resistance_Education...

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#23

Post by ttt_ »

3pt14159 wrote: post #11

I've had the internet for twenty years (since I was 8) and computer access since I was 3. Most of my friends had access since they were 10 or 11. We turned out fine. Some kids who have poor role models are going to ask for oral sex from boys or girls that like them. This was true 3000 years ago. It is true today. It will be true twenty years from now regardless of what silly idea the person who made the documentary h…

>> Most of my friends had access since they were 10 or 11. We turned out fine.

Much akin to "when we were kids we rode in the front seat without seat belts on, we turned out fine", and several other versions of that phrase.

I don't think it's a valid argument at all.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#24

Post by mordae »

jpswade wrote: post #17

The Internet isn't the problem here, consumption is, just like TV wasn't the problem 20 years ago, or computer games wasn't 10 years ago. Let us not forget the 7 deadly sins: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. Teenagers simply aren't equipped to deal with these issues like adults are, hell even some adults struggle.

It's not Pride, it's Vanity.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#25

Post by Sagat »

scrrr wrote: post #12

Apparently there's some proof that too much pornography is bad for you. [1] Not too mention all the multitasking. Other than that the Internet is like every other thing. It has good and bad sides. I, for one, have faith in teenagers. They'll turn out alright. It's usually the old folks that make the bigger/worse mistakes. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSF82AwSDiU

But it's the teenagers who turn into those old folks. So they don't turn out alright.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#26

Post by lucozade »

chrisdone wrote: post #18
djent wrote: post #4

I'm a teenager, and from my own experience, teenagers will do idiotic things even without the Internet. Pointing the finger at the Internet for parents' problems with their children is an easy thing to do because the Internet can't defend itself, especially as a whole.

Oddly, I was a teenager, too. The mistake some members of the adult generation make, and have always made, is thinking that, or acting as though (and that is an easy cop out), the current teen generation is fundamentally different to their own.

Some members of the adult generation i.e. me are concerned that the current generation is no different from their own. I'd hate to think how distracted I'd have been with access to everything my children have.

Having said that, I'm not sure the discussion is advanced much by either highlighting incredibly extreme cases or cases that just happen to involve technology (being sent down from Oxford for dissolute behaviour has a long history).

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#27

Post by msluyter »

Given the absence of real data (as in, studies that demonstrate conclusively that watching too much online porn has certain downsides), it's not surprising that a lot of comments are resorting to anecdotal reasoning of the form: "Well, I use the internet and I'm ok..."

Nonetheless, I think it's worth entertaining the hypothesis that in many ways the internet is like candy for your brain, and constant exposure might have subtle -- perhaps not yet fully recognized or appreciated -- effects on our cognition. We're running a vast uncontrolled experiment, and when things go wrong we (tech elites) tend to dismiss it with some variation of "Well, they had mental health issues or a parental problems or they would have been bullied anyway etc... etc... etc... It couldn't have been the internet."

The problem is that these are the same sorts of arguments that have been deployed in the face of every technological advance. "It's not that video games are addictive, it's that people already prone to addiction choose to become addicted to video games. 100 years ago they would have been addicted to whist."

I find this to be rather unpersuasive, generally, but I'm honestly also at a loss to articulate a compelling counterargument of my own. I have vague misgivings and a handful of anecdotes and not a lot of sound science.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#28

Post by bennyg »

ttt_ wrote: post #23
3pt14159 wrote: post #11

I've had the internet for twenty years (since I was 8) and computer access since I was 3. Most of my friends had access since they were 10 or 11. We turned out fine. Some kids who have poor role models are going to ask for oral sex from boys or girls that like them. This was true 3000 years ago. It is true today. It will be true twenty years from now regardless of what silly idea the person who made the documentary h…

>> Most of my friends had access since they were 10 or 11. We turned out fine. Much akin to "when we were kids we rode in the front seat without seat belts on, we turned out fine", and several other versions of that phrase. I don't think it's a valid argument at all.

I don't think your point's valid either. Driving is operating heavy machinery, plain and simple. Driving without a seatbelt is totally different than using Facebook, or eBay, or Craigslist, unrestricted. They really couldn't be more dissimilar.

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#29

Post by jpswade »

mordae wrote: post #24
jpswade wrote: post #17

The Internet isn't the problem here, consumption is, just like TV wasn't the problem 20 years ago, or computer games wasn't 10 years ago. Let us not forget the 7 deadly sins: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. Teenagers simply aren't equipped to deal with these issues like adults are, hell even some adults struggle.

It's not Pride, it's Vanity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins#Pride

Re: Teenagers and the Internet

#30

Post by throwaway43210 »

I am a teenager who was watching internet porn daily. I was forced to stop during a 2 week long holiday in which I shared a room with my family and had limited internet access.

I immediately started noticing girls more and being more outgoing in life. I know this is anecdotal evidence, but I can't help but feel like it is unnatural to masturbate so often.

I think those chemicals in our body help us function and relate during crucial years and that such easy access to internet pornography is upsetting some balance.

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