With development of social media, more and more youngsters are being allowed unsupervised access to the internet in order to meet and chat with friends which can lead to potentially dangerous situations. What solutions can you suggest to deal with this problem

Social networking as a medium is very powerful and its popularity is growing day by day. Despite its virtues, social media’s negative effects on our youth, especially the impressionable teenagers, are well recorded

in

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with

the news. Major crimes resulted due to

it but

Accept comma addition

it, but

not limited to, as per the

crimes

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crime

bureau report 2019 are, kidnaps, molestations, harassment, physical attacks, public shaming etc.... Gullible young people tend to trust random strangers online which

are leading

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is leading

to vulnerable situations, as in the case of

kidnap

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kidnaps

of a 12 year old girl from Kolkata.

However

, the bigger concern is

lack

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the lack

of knowledge

to

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of

the parents about their kin’s activities on these platforms.

This

is proved by their surprised faces when police unravel the mysteries. Luckily, there are ways to tackle

this

problem.

Firstly

, restriction helps. As prevention is better than cure, monitoring their activity and restricting the usage by

hours

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the hours

they spend on mobiles would greatly help.

This

is because it reduces the probability of falling

in

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into

a trap.

In addition

to these, technological solutions like “Child Usage” plug-ins similar to child lock on TV, would come handy in

this

situation.

Secondly

, communication is better. Though, the

first

solution works, there are limitations. There are several workarounds for these surveillance tools helping users hide their activities.

Also

, restricting mobile usage is practically non viable given their importance in today’s education system.

Hence

, educating them about the potential hazards of the Facebooks and the Twitters is important. While there is a risk of looking like a preachy person, it is important to have

this

conversation.

Additionally

, providing a choice of a healthy hobby like sports or reading will provide extra benefits as well. In conclusion, I suggest a two-pronged solution to curb the ill-effects of online social media.

First idea

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The first idea

revolves around controlling the usage while the

second

deals with a softer

counseling

something that provides direction or advice as to a decision or course of action

counselling

approach. Both, if employed together, they work wonders on eliminating risks of

this

new age essential evil.