A boy of 11 years old wanted to make an account on the famous social networking site ‘Facebook’ but as his age was less, so he was not able to complete his registration. Almost all of you might be aware of what the Facebook is or why is it so famous? According to the statistics, it is the largest social networking site present on earth and its subscribers or account holders are above one billion. It is free to use and its interactive features make it favorite of people of all the ages and both the genders. On the site, people can find and make friends and share with each other messages, pictures and many more.

Anyhow, this is not a single case. Now, children whose ages are not big enough to make an account, create an account by concealing their true age. A study shows that there are 7.5 million users of Facebook who are under age 13 which is against the policy and terms of use of the site.

It has also been criticized for being the site responsible for wasting time of people and especially the students and teenagers. On the other hand, lot many complex problems have been reported when people conceal their true identity and gender and cheat a member of opposite sex.

In our society, the problem has come in even stronger and pernicious form. First, is the loss of common intelligence and sensibility. Sitting in front of computer monitor for hours makes drastic effects on the soundness of mind and thinking and thus it has been noticed that people and especially the youngsters who use it a lot have shown gradual decline in their level of intelligence and general sensibility. Second great loss has come in the form of rampant immorality when boys and girls make friends, see each other’s pictures, chat for hours and all these result in such circumstances that cannot be permitted according to our religion or the social and cultural norms. Then it has developed distances among the people when people only chat or see each other on their computer screens instead of visiting physically.

Due to all these problems, there are also present millions of parents around the world who are very worried about their children. The problem is not only of Facebook, it is further worsened by other sites like Youtube or Netlog and videos games and Playstations and of course, the television.

Usually parents utilize two types of strategies and both of them have not been found to be much effective in controlling this problem. In societies, where there is complete freedom of children and parents are not legally permitted to force their decisions, children have been left unchecked and thus children do whatever they wish to do.

In societies like ours, where parents are still having some authority to stop their children and punish them to some extent, parents have used their power but it has mostly resulted in a revolt by their children and thus the case has become even worse.

But I have seen some of the parents being successful in controlling this problem. There are some of the effective and proven measures being recommended by them:

• Make a very good time table for them. They should be allowed to use computer for a limited time only, say an hour or two in a day. After your son or daughter returns from school, he should follow a time table in which his or her time should be divided for rest, studies, recreation (computer or television) and meals. He should be allowed to use computer in the given time only and if he does not follow the time table, he should be punished by banning from computer or television or decreasing the permitted time for its usage. It is hoped that with the passage of time, your child would be able to season himself with this time table and then you will not have to worry too much.
• It is said that when good things will not be there, bad things will replace and fill their place. When a child or a teenager doesn’t find any other interesting activity or work to do, definitely he or she finds it easy and interesting to take refuge in front of computer screen. Now, let’s turn the above scenario in reverse; if we will create interesting activities to our children, they might not go near to the computer. A father used to get up early in the morning and played football or badminton in the small lawn of the house and children loved to be a part of it. As children had to get up early for this in morning so they used to fall asleep early at night as well. Another person used to return home in the afternoon and after helping his children in their studies, used to play with them or did gardening in the yard of the house. Children never left him alone in these activities.
• Book reading is a habit that has been termed to be the best of all the habits as it gives a sound and pleasant shape to the personality. In houses, where parents are in habit of book or newspaper reading, children also adopt it and soon they find out that book reading is far interesting than the computer or television. Some parents bring books to their children or read books or narrate stories to them and do other works to develop this habit. In present day, when books and magazines are abundantly and conveniently available, every parent can afford to do so.
• Then environment is also of extreme importance. If you ask your child to bring some of his friends to home where they should study and play together and if you could serve them with some delicious refreshments, you would be the person creating the environment instead of complaining the bad and idle society or environment. This task needs to be carried out with so many tactics and varied strategies.
• Most of the problems of children stem from the ignorance or inappropriate behavior or strategy of parents. When parents don’t give proper time to their children, when they are not given due love and attention at home, when their fair demands are not met and when they are not loved and taken care of, they try to draw this attention and love from things present around them. It is necessary that parents should be very much sincere with their children and should not leave them alone on the name of working hard to make their future. Our future is based on our present and if our children’s present is sound and pleasant, we can be absolutely sure of their good future.

With all these suggestions, it is hoped that, we, as parents, would be able to reach to the rescue of our children from these harmful modern diseases.