According to the most recent research, a child gets their first smartphone at 10.3 years old while 50% of children have their first social media account by age 12.
Is social media bad or good?
It’s true that smartphones themselves aren’t fundamentally good or bad.
They give us all kinds of useful functionality and quality-of-life improvements while also being the carrier of some things that can be harmful to our mental health.
So long as you properly manage your use, you can take advantage of the positives while effectively managing the negatives.
Of course, it’s not quite so simple as that.
In her film, Screenagers, filmmaker, mother, and Stanford-trained physician Dr. Delaney Ruston digs into the issue of modern tech use in children and teens and its effects on families.
The dangers of social media are real
In Cox Communications’s recent Teen Internet Safety Survey, they found that the average teen spends nearly 6 hours online each day with 92% of those being social media users.
They also found that as a result of that frequent Internet and social media use:
- 1-in-4 Teens have been the victim of cyberbullying via social
- Half (50%) of teens have witnessed cyberbullying
- And more parents are taking steps to manage their teen’s Internet use, roughly half of teens admit taking steps to hide their online behavior from parents
Clearly, social media has its benefits. It can:
- Connect us in ways we never could
- It provides a safe gateway for more introverted personalities to practice being social (though isn’t a healthy long-term replacement for face-to-face contact)
- It can keep us informed of the world’s events and gives the average more of a voice than in the past, and
- Allow us to follow the things and people that interest us
However, the dangers of social media for teens are arguably much more compelling, and only now are we truly beginning to understand what they are.
6 Dangers of Social Media for Kids and Teens
Without a doubt, if you’re a parent, you need to take steps to help your kids develop healthy habits with technology like smartphones, social, and the Internet in general.
But social media stands as a much more immediate and pressing challenge to our kid’s well-being for several reasons.
That’s why in this guide, we’ll be covering everything you need to know about overcoming the dangers of social media to teens, including…
Table of Contents:
- The 6 dangers of social media for kids and teens:
- Addiction
- Social comparison
- Reduced attention
- Personal data-stealing and abusing of information
- Cyber-bullying
- Isolation
- What to do about it
- Set up a tech contract
- Teach them self-love
- Empower their own sense of competency
- Additional resources on managing tech use in kids and teens
- Frequently asked questions
First, let’s talk about the major dangers of social media for kids and teens. After we dive into that, we’ll talk about what you can do about it.
1. Addiction
According to a recent study published in scientific journal ScienceDirect, over 210 million people around the world suffer from Internet and social media addictions.
One of the greatest dangers of social media inherent in itself is addiction. According to Shirley Cramer, Chief Executive of the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) in the UK, “Social media has been described as more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol.”
“[Social media] is now so entrenched in the lives of young people that it is no longer possible to ignore it when talking about young people’s mental health issues.,” Cramer says.
Both cigarette and alcohol addictions are much more chemical than psychological like social media, even hereditary in the case of alcoholism, so we don’t want to draw that comparison too closely.https://www.youtube.com/embed/z3TJPyHqadY?feature=oembed&start&end&wmode=opaque&loop=0&controls=1&mute=0&rel=0&modestbranding=0
However, just speaking of them in the same breath is enough to paint a very clear picture of what we’re dealing with.
Addiction is a dangerous downhill slope that can affect virtually everything.
In teens, social media addiction can affect their academic performance, family relationships, and even physical health. It can even double depressive symptoms in teens that spend more than 5 hours a day on their smartphone.
Resources:https://technologyformindfulness.com/dangers-of-social-media/
Comment: Like what I have said, I think social media could be a huge problem for child. This article give out some statistics about social media use by child. In addition, this article provides both pro and con of social media.
