Social Ills of Youth Today

The Ministry of Education will soon be including an internet safety package of lessons in their Civics and Moral Education syllabus. A small but important step to defeating the huge problems afflicting the youths of today, ignorance of laws that apply even when online, extreme gaming addiction, basically, how to responsibly use the internet without negative consequences to themselves or others.
This problem is indeed a daunting task to tackle, as it resembles an illness in its final stages; the problem has already taken hold of much of the patient, in this case, the teenagers, and it actively resists attempts to ‘cure’ it by parents or therapists. An important question to ask is, is trying to cure this illness fighting a losing battle?
As a teenager myself, I believe I have a better understanding of what drives teenagers to use the internet excessively and fall into the trap of addiction than most adults. In accordance with my own experiences, I do not believe it to be the lack of Civics lessons in school. Honestly speaking, the lessons I had in the past
did not change my viewpoints significantly on the subjects they were touching on. It may partly be the lack of guidance by important figures in teenagers’ lives such as their parents, but that is part of what I believe to the main reason to the problem.
I believe that the Singaporean lifestyle itself is what causes the problem of teenagers getting in trouble involving the internet. Many families nowadays have both parents going to work and leaving their children to their own devices at home. Without guidance and company, the children have no choice but to turn to either the computer for their entertainment, and most definitely to internet chatting and online gaming for company. In time, they make friends or talk to old friends online and start to depend on these friends for emotional support. After all, many of these other people online are lonely teenagers like them, with whom they share similar problems and can relate to easily. Part of the problem is that a few of these other people simply pretend to have good intentions, but the lonely teenagers can never tell as they are desperate for attention and understanding.
The teenagers also grow up in a world where technology is everywhere, using technology to communicate with friends online seems so much easier online and can be done while doing other things, probably also online. Online games are packaged with such life-like graphics and enjoyable play that teenagers are easily drawn in to play the games, and interact with other people like themselves online. These fantasy worlds are often so ‘realistic’, yet so much more enjoyable to be than in the real world that the teenagers would rather play for long hours than to face the harsh reality of their homework and need to sleep.
Yet the Singaporean lifestyle cannot be changed to solve this problem, so alternatives must be found.

http://digital.asiaone.com.sg/news/20070206_001.html