Sociologist claims banning kids from using the internet is like ‘child abuse’

Banning your children from using the internet is like child abuse, a sociologist has claimed.

Ellis Cashmore has said that stopping kids from looking at screens is "tantamount to child abuse." The professor's new book, Screen Society, looks at the ways that adults and children use the internet and social media. He concluded that the risks to children using the internet have been "exaggerated." He told the Independent: 

“Imagine if parents stopped children reading, watching and conversing with other children, or playing educational games, drawing, colouring, dancing. Kids do all these kind of things when engaged with screens.

“If parents prevent children pursuing these kind of activities offline, they would be accused of some form of abuse. They'd effectively be stunting the child's development.”

This comes after many other studies suggested that allowing children to spend a lot of time on the internet was damaging. Cashmore surveyed 2,000 internet users to look at the ways people use screens and the internet in this day and age. He concluded that the risks to children are "exaggerated" and that there are more educational and social advantages to the internet than there are dangers. So, what do you think? Is the internet good or bad for our kids?