The internet has become the global hang-out of the new generation of American kids. It is in a place that is practically unreachable by discipline because the internet is not located in one single place, nor can it be ruled by simply one set of rules. With this definition in mind, we can see why it is described as the Wild West of the 21st Century. The internet offers the kids of today too many shortcuts to the way they should be leading their real lives.
The internet was originally envisioned as a tool developed for the good of mankind. However, the advent of the new century saw the internet become the new world of the 21st century. It is a new world where the kids of today feel so comfortable and free that they can disconnect from the real world and more disturbingly, their parents.
I believe that the kids have to be taught about the benefits and disadvantages of the internet while bringing their parents up to speed about this new world that they lose their children to every single day. That is where the APN comes in. We need some entity that will help connect parents with their children and allow the children to feel comfortable letting their parents into their “private world”. The recent rise in death numbers due to cyber-bullying is more than enough proof that the internet needs to be policed somehow and the kids need to let their parents into their world somehow to offer them some sort of real-life protection when need be.
The internet is a new and dangerous world for all of us. We are all only learning about the power that it wields over our lives and if we let it, it can consume us and make us lose sight of what is real and what is not. We need organizations that will help create that distinction and let the kids know that there is an opt-out option which, if they accept, will make them even better people than they are now.