Internet addiction: Don calls on govts., guardians to positively engage youths

Wed, Oct 31, 2018 | By publisher


Youth

Oluwafemi Osho, a lecturer, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State has called on guardians and government to encourage hard work and engage youths positively to deter them from internet addiction.

Osho, who is lectures in the Cyber Security Science Department in the university, made the call on Wednesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He said that internet addiction could occur because of idle time on the part of the youths but if encouraged to work hard and direct their time to productive activities, the menace would be curbed.

“People get addicted to the internet because of idleness. For instance, somebody finishes school and if he doesn’t get employment for a while, he can easily resort to internet abuse.

“In the universities, you have a system where students are just given handouts and they know that during exams, the questions will be based on the handouts.

“This system encourages people not to be hard working. Our youths need to be diligent.

“As long as people have time to spare, it is easy to spend it on the internet and it gradually gets to the level of addiction,” he said.

Osho said that youths that were not employed needed to be engaged in extracurricular activities, adding that universities curriculum also needed to be changed to be more engaging.

“When the university did a survey, which focused on the university students, we discovered that 83.3 per cent of them fell under the category of `possible internet abusers’.

“I am very sure that even if you carry out the same survey across the country, you will get something close.

“From findings in other countries, we discovered that Nigeria  is the highest so far,” Osho said.

He said that in most countries, especially the developed ones, the rate of internet abuses was just between four and six per cent.

Osho, however, reiterated that there was need to create awareness on the dangers of internet addiction, which includes cyber fraud.

He said that the government needed to be more involved in conducting such surveys to foster awareness creation on the dangers of internet addiction.

“It is possible to be addicted to the internet just the way you get addicted to alcohol, smoking and watching movies.

“Internet is becoming a serious issue, especially the use of social media; it is disconnecting family bond in homes,” said.

Osho said that the awareness creation should be taken to schools, religious gatherings and other public places people converge. (NAN)

– Oct. 31, 2018 @ 16:21 GMT |

Tags: