Before I begin, I would like to address that this is a serious topic, and I usually don't post these kinds of storied. But, I think it is important to talk about this and show how it affects teens.
Whether it’s going on Instagram, watching YouTube, or even texting their friends, social media is something many students spend their time on. However, I am sure many of you reading may not think it is a big deal. This is actually incorrect, according to a 2019 study, over 90% of teens have some kind of social media. Moreover, 90% of kids through the ages of 13-17 years old have social media, and 51% using it daily. This is a very large percentage of students, and this number can only increase from here. Therefore, it is vital to understand social media’s influences on students, take it from a student herself.
The Risks Of Social Media
Social media can be a dark place for anyone, not just teens. As kids start to get older and begin middle/high school they experience the urge for popularity, and that’s when things get messy.
Pressure and Popularity
You see, once students start using social media, they feel the stress of posting, keeping up with everything, and trying to make their life look perfect, therefore raising their popularity bar. This can cause them to be on social media constantly and disrupt their education.
Even at school, they may be so distracted thinking about how they missed out on that cool thing their friends did, or how the popular people went someplace awesome together. They know this because they see their Instagram post the day before or their Tik Tok the morning of. This is called FOMO, the fear of missing out. Danae Lund (Ph.D.), a specialist under psychology for teens and kids can add on to this, “I think there’s a pressure to keep up. It’s one more thing kids have to be responsible for, to keep up with what other people posted. There could be social consequences with their peers if they don’t know what everybody’s talking about. There used to be more breaks from that kind of anxiety, like downtime when kids were at home,” Dr. Lund stated. What this shows is how students then feel that need to be on social media so often, they always want to know what is going on and what they are missing out on. They constantly need to prove to others and even themselves that they are living the best life when it is all under a mask.
Cyber-Bullying
Cyberbullying can be very dangerous, it can hurt a child or teen so much it could lead to depression, anxiety, and/or self-harm when there is a lack of supervision. The main cause for this is the unwanted, addictive use of social media. However, if a child already has social media, it may be hard to just immediately take it away, start by limiting their posts, then gradually luring them into deleting the app itself; baby steps
But, it is important to do this. The inaugural 2020 COSI study, which holds information and analytics from over 145,000 children, reported that 60 percent of 8-12-year-olds living in 30 of the recognized countries are exposed to cyber risks. This may not sound like a lot, but this is ground-breaking. Cyberbullying is also a major problem. 31% of children aged 8-12 years old have been bullied online or via cell phone. 39% of children aged 8-12 years old have had their picture or video posted on a public platform without their consent.
What’s worse is that it is affecting kids and becoming a problem for them at such a young age. It's important to educate ourselves and others about this issue, as it can cause many traumatic experiences. For example, even in one of the safest countries, Singapore, a girl was contacted by an older man in an inappropriate manner, online, and the child agreed to his horrendous terms. Soon after, he began bullying her. At first, she didn’t want to tell anyone, but it had hurt her so bad that at some point he was caught and was sentenced to jail. This happened on the 26th of July, 2021, a recent act that is still alive in the contemporary world. In many of these circumstances, these people are not found or punished. This is known to be a serious offense and these bad people should be held for their consequences, yet, many of them aren’t found or noticed. And all of this can happen in less than an hour. So if you're a parent, a guardian, a child, or almost anyone, you should understand how this may affect a relative or a loved one who is still a minor, even adults go through these things. And it is never to blame the child, as it is in all cases, not their fault.
Unfortunately, it gets worse. A study has shown that the risk of cyberbullying for a child is 40 percent and for teenagers, it is 52 percent. For risky contact statistics, 17% of children and 31% of teens have experienced it. As for cyber threats, 23% of children and 50% of teens have faced them. And lastly, for reputational risks, 30% of children and 46% of teens have seen this problem.
Credit: Today Singapore
I’m sure by now you can all agree with what I’m saying but we still need to do something about this horrific news that is starting to become more common. We cannot normalize these issues and need to be prepared for when situations like these become apparent to our loved ones or community and people around us.
Exposure to Inappropriate Content
As it may not sound fun to read, this is common throughout the world and very dangerous to many minors and children, even adults are being affected by this terrifying risk. But there is evidence to support that this is an important issue and red flag we need to try to moderate, and hopefully eliminate. It can even harm a child or teen’s mindset.
Studies show that 51% of teens have been exposed to inappropriate content via social media. These statistics are so high; we clearly need to do something about it. As a parent, a guardian, an adult, or just a concerned person we need to prevent this from happening in the first place. Make sure that your child does not have full access to social media and if they do, take away or limit it to avoid exposing them to dangerous and harmful information scattered across these platforms.
Use caution when uploading anything on the internet and be very careful. It’s effortless for a child or teen to stumble upon inappropriate content. As much as you may want to use social media, think about the outcomes and consequences and if it is truly worth it. And most importantly, be present in your child’s life so as to protect them from this major issue.
The Pros
This may seem scary but there are a few benefits as well, like a good source of communication to strengthen relationships educate others, express yourself, and you can come across videos that can teach you important skills for life. But remember that for all of these benefits to work, your child/teen should have their freedom, in a safe way. Set inappropriate content and screen time limits on their devices and keep them on safer social media apps first.
The Final Verdict
In conclusion, this shows that even though there are benefits to social media for students, the negatives need to be controlled as much as possible. Social media should be used in moderation to not have a bad outcome, since, it could possibly affect your child’s grades, friendships, and emotions. So, as a parent or a guardian, you need to use this knowledge to your advantage. Protect your children from social media. Limit their access to social media apps or put them in a supervised setting so they can learn how to properly use these platforms before it’s too late.