In this day and age, it’s common for most teenagers to have at least one social media platform and electronic device- such as a phone. This UK study in 2023, found that 97% of children (starting at age 12) are on social media. Of those children, 70% say that social media is causing them to have increased feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. These numbers are slowly increasing day by day, post by post, and we need to strive to ensure the safety of our child’s psychological well-being.
Social media can be a menacing place for minors as they are often targeted because they are innocent and don’t know the possible dangers. It appears to be that some apps that are “meant for kids” (such as YouTube Kids), intentionally target children and expose them to toxic, disgusting situations. Many predators can contact naive children on social media and trick them into doing things that they will regret later, such as sending inappropriate messages or photos.
A recent trend that has taken place is “ElsaGate”. It featured people dressing up as popular fictional characters on YouTube Kids and doing some incredibly inappropriate and/or unethical things. Although there is an unimaginable amount of useful knowledge on all those websites across the internet, there is much that you wouldn’t want your child to know. Both children and adults can easily get exposed to extremely inappropriate content no matter how cautious a person may be. Many parents need to be cautious of the websites their children visit because inappropriate media is everywhere. A study, 1, found on the website Internet matters.org, has shown that most young kids have come across many inappropriate media through video games and funny videos. Many sites say that they are safe for kids but on almost all of those websites there is at least one video displaying content not suitable for children. An unhealthy amount of children have been exposed to visual content that can and has scarred many for life.
As you should understand by now, children on social media aren’t old enough to be able to handle the many risks that social media and cell phone use can cause. Another threat that is becoming much more popular is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a type of virtual “attack” method that bullies a person through a virtual device. When done to a great extent, it extremely damages the psychological well-being of the person being bullied. It can be done to anyone anywhere, from anyone in the world.
Along with all these mental issues that are gained through social media- hacking cases are rising day by day. For example, a child may click on a link that appears to be a new online video game. Turns out that link just made their device extremely vulnerable to being attacked and now all their personal information is being leaked to the world for their twisted uses.
Blackmailing is another topic that arises when hacking is brought up. Photos, videos, emails, texts, and all sorts of things can be used against you. Everything you send can be shared with anyone from anywhere. Blackmailing has caused kids to do things they would never dream of doing and has caused a great deal of harm to their parents.
Did you know that children under the age of 16 are extremely prone to being addicted to their phones and social media? A study from the National Library of Medicine, in the United States, showed that nearly 70% of teens have some sort of addiction to social media/their phones. The Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma”, focused on how common social media apps were used to control and impact the decisions of its users. The creators of these apps are looking for one thing, YOUR ATTENTION, as you use an app more, for example, YouTube, the app gets to know you more and tries to steal your attention by filling your pages with things you would generally enjoy. You can see this on Instagram (non-stop scrolling), Snapchat, and YouTube. Social media creates such a distraction to a child’s mind that they forget to live their life.
Because they are so addicted to their screens, they do not put time into the things that matter, such as relationships, friendships, school, sports, etc. Due to all this addiction, attention span, or in this case, the lack of it, is clear evidence of the dangers to a child’s mental well-being. A CNN article reports that in the past 20 years, there was a decrease in attention span from 2.5 minutes to just 47 seconds.
Using the internet as a tool to learn and help people is amazing, please take as many precautions and safety measures as possible when doing so. You never know if you could be the next blackmail target, or who knows what else.
Other Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problematic_social_media_use
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4183915/
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/negative-effects-social-media/
https://www.simplilearn.com/real-impact-social-media-article
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2023/02/harms-benefits-social-media-kids