There’s an Indian chat site called Orkut which is coming under a lot of flak recently. A teenager from Mumbai, lured by misleading photos and promises from a chatter, was kidnapped and subsequently killed when his ransom deal fell through. Since it was done through this site, many people are asking for it to be shut down and more stringent regulations enforced to prevent this from happening again. There are other allegations about Orkut – pornography, easy access to user profiles and the subsequent possibility of their misuse.
While I agree with the intent, I don’t think restrictions will yield the expected results. By its very nature, the internet is decentralized and cannot be selectively controlled. Once a website is turned off, others will take its place. Or if the server lies outside India, as many of them are, kids will find a new way to access them. The original design of the internet was rooted in its ability to maintain communications in case of a nuclear war, it finds its own way.
It would be unwise to remove or restrict internet access because our country is still a developing nation. After decades of struggling we have finally found our niche in the global market. By denying our children exposure to these new technologies we will be severely limiting their future prospects and surrendering our dominant position to other developing countries. This time we were lucky; most educated Indians know how to communicate in English and that has made all the difference. But other countries are catching up fast. We need our kids fluent in these technologies if they are to excel in global economies.
The solution is not restrictions but education. Demographically, the use of internet in India is still limited to English-speaking, well-to-do families living in larger cities. Almost all these kids attend regular school. While the K-12 syllabus in India covers computers to a fairly acceptable level, it falls far short in explaining the pitfalls of using computers and internet. If children are properly educated in the correct use of computers, many of these problems can be minimized. For example, if the kids are properly made aware of the risk of giving out their personal information to strangers on the net, they will not do it. From my own observations, I know that kids are much better at understanding technology than adults could ever be. They embrace it faster and are much more adept at handling it than we are.
I’m not just talking about chatting. There are other aspects of computer safety not covered by our education system. Things like incorrect postures, carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive strain injuries, eye strains – these problems must also be addressed at length if we want our children to grow up as healthy adults. The developed nations have had some successes at combating many of these problems simply because they have made their people aware of the risks involved and have recommended ways and means to deal with them. But just writing the usual drab text in school books may not be enough. The government could also create lively and informative websites which provide this information. There are many ways to educate the kids in the safe and enjoyable use of new technologies. Technology is a double-edged sword, from cell phones to internet, they all have their possibilities of abuse. Simply banning them would not be a part of the solution, it would just be a part of a bigger problem. Computers and the internet are here to stay, its time we taught our kids to use them wisely.
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