Share the post "How Social Media affect children. Is there any possibility to decrease inappropriate content there?"
Nowadays, almost every person in the Europe can use or is using social media. It’s a place where we can do various things ,for example to communicate with friends or to read the news. However, there are many accounts showing inappropriate content, for example violence or porn, which shouldn’t have been seen by juveniles. But firstly let me show you some statistics about social media usage by the age in the UK.
From the age 3 to 4, 21% of the kids use social media and 24% of them have their own account. From age 5 to 7, 33% use and 30% have own account. Age 8-11, 64% use and 60% have an account. In age between 12-15, 91% of the teenagers use social media and 89% of them have an account. Between 16-17 almost everyone (97%) use social media and 94% of them have their own account.
And what does it mean? These percentages consist of huge number of younglings who are using social media and being exposed to its impact and consequences.
Mainly, children use social media to communicate with their friends, to watch cartoons or to follow their favourite influencers/celebrities. And that’s a good thing. Teenagers feel more socialized, confident and popular. However, there are also a few negative aspects of surfing on the Internet in such a young age.
Spending a lot of hours in front of the screen, preferring to stay at home than to go out with friends are the most crucial problems. Also high screen time can lead to addiction, anxiety and depression. From apps like Tiktok children could start to use inappropriate language and apps like Instagram or Pinterest (by seeing perfect, sometimes photoshoped, bodies) can contribute to decreasing young people’s self-worth.
Recently, I’ve read an article in which it is said about the death of 14 years old girl named Molly Russel. She has committed suicide due to negative content available on social media. After this incident the UK coroner have started to implying the idea of separate social media websites for children and adults and that got me to think how can we prevent children from harm in the Internet.
However, I disagree with the British coroner. Usually children want to be similar to their parents so they’re not gonna use sites for kids but like their parents, sites for adults. And it’s parent’s business to control their kids and watch the young ones’ behaviour. App developer can only help to improve the parental control system. Also the administration in apps like Tiktok, Facebook, etc. should do their job more efficiently ,if we’re talking about inappropriate content, by paying more attention to the rulebook.
In summery, I think that we should give children the possibility of having access to social media but as parents’ obligation to kids, they need their protection. But how about you? Do you have other idea how we could prevent such a bad things like with ‘Russell’ case to happen? Let me know in the comments;)
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I agree with you that creating a social media app for kids is pointless as they will always find a way to access grown-ups’ content. That being said I’m not sure if parental control is a solution, no matter how strict. In my opinion, the main problem lies in the fact that parents decide to give their kids access to the internet too quickly, what we can observe from the statistics that You have provided. Kids under the age of 10 shouldn’t have a smartphones, e-mails, or social media accounts – they just do not need them in any way. And giving those things to kids just to make them quiet for some time can be very harmful and drastically limit their social skills and general interest in their surroundings. We can’t prevent teenagers from discovering the e-world, but at least we should do anything to keep the youngest human beings from social media.
From my point of view, parents play a big part in the level at which children have access to social media. These days kids get their first phone at an very early age which is definitely too early for a child to have access to such huge amount of information. However we cant pin the whole blame on parents, as kids also have other means of accessing the media such as through peer groups or simply the outside world, as we all know the world has become more and more digital. Therefore I think the best we can all do is to avoid posting inappropriate things on social platforms and parents should strictly monitor the activities of their children online.
I fully agree that the extent to which social media influences the younger generation is unbelievable and even hazardous. The constant usage of social media by children and youngsters not only undermines their social activity in real-time and jeopardises their lives (since there is a big number of frauds and children traffickers, looking for victims on social networks), but also exterminates the personality and preconceptions of younger generation’s representatives. Social media delves children into a virtual world, overfilled with idealised people and fake images. The constant inflow of photos with celebrities and bloggers wearing expensive outfits and blinding everyone with perfectly clear skin and white teeth induces teenagers to perceive them as idols and be obsessed to look similar to them. Moreover, social media spreads a considerably big amount of fake news and propaganda, poisoning young brains and killing their personal opinion.
Of course, it is almost impossible to dissuade children from using social networks, but at least parents could find out what makes their offspring so obsessed with them. In my opinion, it is a huge craving for socialisation and staying up-to-date with the latest news. So, I am concerned that parents should encourage their children to use simple messengers, as a substitute for communication, and make their children familiar with reliable sources of news so that they would not be misled by tons of fake information, posted on social networks. I am poised to assume that over the years social media will become even more poisonous and dangerous, so it is not worth relying on improvement there, it is better to change the values and interests of new generations, thus limiting their commitment to social networks.
The statistics that I see of how much time people spend on their phones is just awful, and that’s not even talking about children. After all, children are those people who are subject to the strong mental and psychological influence of the Internet. What they often see on the Internet can leave a big mark on their childhood and further influence their development. I agree with the example that was described in the blog that when teenagers see the perfect picture on Instagram or Pinterest, they simply cannot compare it with reality and understand that this is often not true. All perfect bodies, clothes and money, everything that is sometimes seen is a complete lie. Of course, we cannot completely protect them from this, because they will simply reach out to the Internet and social networks, knowing that this is impossible, because everyone wants to break the rules. so the only option, in my opinion, is to give access to parents in order to control their child.