The digital world and the Generation Z

WE can no longer deny it, the world has become digital and it has its hold on our most precious possession: our children.

This much can be gleaned from the fact that Unicef’s State of the World Children 2017 released last month is entitled “Children in a Digital World”. It aims to raise awareness on how connected children are these days, how the digital technology can be harnessed to benefit the children more, and the dangers that it poses as well.

Worldwide, the Unicef reported, 71 percent of those aged 15-24 are online compared to 48 percent of the total population, while children and adolescents under 18 “account for an estimated one in three internet users around the world”. And children are accessing the internet at increasingly younger ages.

The more worrisome being, “Smartphones are fuelling a ‘bedroom culture’, with online access for many children becoming more personal, more private and less supervised.”

This bedroom culture reminds parents not to let go of their roles as guardians and mentors so that the benefits of the digital age can best be harnessed instead of opening gates that would bring harm.

Children, smart as they may seem these days, still lack the discernment and wisdom that can keep them out of trouble especially with pressures from unseen forces that Internet can bring right inside the bedroom. The opportunities digitalization brings are as great as the harm it can create.

Thus, among the recommendations that the Unicef report gives is to “put children at the centre of digital policy.”

The world wide web is a double-edged sword, it cuts both ways -- the good and the bad, and being a technology, it does not distinguish whether the user is still a child or not. It is up to the parents, the education system, the policy makers, the program implementors and everyone else in the adult world who has the best interest of the child in mind to ensure that the bad is minimized and the good benefits the broadest masses.

“If leveraged in the right way and made universally accessible, digital technology can be a game changer for children being left behind – whether because of poverty, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, displacement or geographic isolation – connecting them to a world of opportunity and providing them with the skills they need to succeed in a digital world. But unless we expand access, digital technology may create new divides that prevent children from fulfilling their potential. And if we don’t act now to keep pace with rapid change, online risks may make vulnerable children more susceptible to exploitation, abuse and even trafficking – as well as more subtle threats to their wellbeing,” the report said.