By Amy Turner
A recent story in the
Times has questioned whether seven is too young for a child to be writing a
blog, which led me to think about how many children are now expressing their
views online and the impact this is having. Take, for example, nine year
old blogger Martha Payne who’s daily school dinner updates achieved
widespread coverage back in June, eventually gaining over five million viewers
and raising over £100,000 for charity.
Nowadays, it seems that young children are becoming so accustomed to social media and the internet that it’s now not uncommon to hear of these child literary sensations. As such, this is having a huge influence on what this generation considers to be personal or private information, and what is acceptable to share online. Many children and teenagers are now comfortable sharing almost all aspects of their lives and their opinions on places such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
It’s now accepted and often celebrated that the internet has given a platform to many whose opinions would otherwise not have been heard, but does a child of seven understand the potential repercussions of their actions? During Obama’s first Campaign for the presidential election a seven year old boy blogged his support for the now President, going on to receive a letter from Obama himself. Huge amount of coverage has been dedicated to the influence that Twitter had in this year’s US presidential election. With this in mind, how will online actions of today’s children help to structure future political campaigns?
Do these technologies encourage young people to share too much information about themselves or does it instead serve as an educational purpose, teaching young people about the power of voicing their opinions and the difference they can make, by using the internet?
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