Sample TOEFL Paired Choice Essay – Internet Access for Children

The Question

Some people think children should have unlimited access to the internet. Others believe parents should supervise their children’s use of the internet. Which do you believe? 

The Sample Essay

This essay comes from my good friend Kathy Spratt.  She operates House of TOEFL.  Contact her if you need high-quality TOEFL lessons.

There are many perspectives on the use of the internet by children that have led to some fascinating discussions. There are certainly people who feel that  parents should not limit the use of the internet, and just allow their children to use it without any restrictions. However, I personally feel that parents should supervise their children while they are online, for reasons I will explore in the following essay. 

To begin with, parents should prevent their children from being exposed to inappropriate content, because there is a lot of violence on the internet. Specifically, there are many websites that include scenes of physical violence; in fact, there are even websites devoted to promoting violent behavior. For example, when I was a child, my parents allowed me to use the internet as much as I wanted. I constantly watched clips of movies on YouTube from action films, and I saw people shoot each other, stab each other, and punch each other. As a result, I got in trouble at school because I copied these actions and the teacher punished me.  For this reason, it’s clear to me that when parents limit internet use for their children, it can lead to an increase in their quality of life.  

What’s more,  when children are always online, they do not focus on their class work which can lead to lower grades. It’s clear that the more time children spend surfing the internet, the lower their grades will be. For instance, my nephew is twelve years old, and he is allowed to play computer games online as long as he pleases. In addition, he spends a great deal of time on social media websites like Facebook and Instagram. When he took his final tests last year, his grades dropped from all A’s to all C’s. Finally, his mother told him he could only go online for twenty minutes a day, and his grades increased substantially. This example has caused me to conclude that limiting internet use is more suitable for most people, even though some may disagree.

In conclusion  I believe parents need to supervise their children’s internet use. I feel this way not only because children may be exposed to violent content, but also because their grades will suffer. I have had enough life experiences with this issue to feel strongly about my opinion, although I understand others may feel just as strongly in the other direction.