The Internet is popular. 3.2 billion people have access to it, why wouldn’t it be? Half of the world’s population uses it to buy, reach out and create content. As useful as it is, the Internet can scar someone. Anyone can be anybody there, and that fact is scarier than any horror movie on Netflix- and it should be cause for families to monitor younger siblings on it.

2015 research shows that 71 percent of kids from age three to 17 use the Internet. Kids have phones or computers for many reasons, like homework. Coolmathgames.com and Youtube are popular, along with social media like Snapchat and Instagram. These sites feature tools to specify location, what someone’s doing and who they’re with. At first glance it’s a great tool, but in the wrong hands it can be anything but. This shows how important it is to monitor who a sibling “friends.”

 This brings up supervision. Some argue that kids are supervised constantly, thus no risk of seeing explicit content on sites. A study from The Digital Future Project says that 70 percent of parents monitor kids’ Internet, but 30 percent are hands-off. What of the 30 percent? Browsing YouTube Kids, you can see things slip through cracks. Look up “George Was Taken To the Hospital Peppa Pig” to see. 

A sibling’s Internet is helpful and harmful. Parents should monitor younger siblings frequently, lest they see disturbing content. Even with safe search, Google provides explicit results- looking up “Ben Ten Gwen”, a girl from the cartoon Ben Ten, can give you scandalous pictures.

On the Internet, someone will most likely stumble upon something creepy, scary or just plain wrong regardless of precautions. The point is to minimize that possibility by watching a sibling’s activity. It could be the difference between a child being scarred by the web, and a child enjoying it to its fullest.