Katie Hunter |
Over recent years, the use of online streaming services to watch TV shows and movies has been on the increase. Today’s teenagers spend an increasing amount of time on the internet and using apps, but less time watching traditional TV and streaming service providers are taking advantage of this.
Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl and American Horror Story. The names of just a few shows in a line-up that target teenagers and I’m sure many of you have already been persuaded to watch these shows by your friends. So what are advantages and disadvantages of these services?
There are many advantages. Firstly accessibility – we can watch movies and shows where and when we want. There is also a huge variety of content to choose from such as horror, sci-fi, documentaries, reality TV and many series’, much of which is American based, and there are no TV advertisements interrupting our our viewing. Subscriptions can be more affordable than Sky or Cable packages and many providers try to entice us with free subscriptions for the first few months. Parents can set boundaries as to what certificate their children are allowed to watch.
There are also many disadvantages. If parents do not set restrictions children can end up watching content inappropriate for their age. Most top movies are older titles. Some shows are not available for a week after being shown on the TV which makes it likely that someone will spoil your enjoyment by telling you what happened in the show. Some channels and shows are not available and some do not have every episode of every show available. With the availability of endless episodes of shows it is easy to find yourself spending hours glued to a screen without even realising. Peer pressure can be hard to deal with when friends are not restricted in the content they are allowed to watch.
Taking everything into consideration, I think online streaming services are very attractive, offering a high standard of movies and TV shows on demand. Parents must however take precautions to ensure children are watching content that is age appropriate.
