Impact of social media on children
Have you recently seen groups of children playing hide and seek on the playground, laughing together and having fun? I had not seen that picture since I was little. The reason is the advancement of social media. Online games, videos and social networking sites seem to be more interesting for the adolescents nowadays.
Around 59 per cent of children have already used a social network by the time they are 10, and 43 per cent have messaged strangers online by the age of 12. A study finds that children start searching for videos on Youtube at the age of 5. Aged 10, they already have their smartphones and start using Internet slang such as “YOLO”, “OMG” and “LOL” and instant messaging. When they reach 11 years of age they are likely to first post an image or video of themselves, post a nasty comment online and set up a fake social media profile. A year later they will first try Twitter and Whatsapp and message someone online they haven’t met in real life. When children reach 13 – their social maturity – they first try services like SnapChat and Ask FM and will try “sexting” for the first time.
Social networking sites such as Facebook and Youtube require a minimum age of 13 so that you can be registered in them. However, most of today’s younger generation neglects those requirements and lies about their age. Adults often do not notice that let their young children wander in the cyberspace. What they do not know is that the cyberspace hides many dangers especially when concerning youngsters.
Children often do not understand the risks involved in giving too much personal information on the Internet. They may call somebody an “online friend” but this person is effectively a strangers that knows too much information about your children and may use it against them in the form of cyber bullying or theft of identity. The Internet provides access to all kinds of content at the click of a mouse - but not all of that content is suitable for children and young people to see. This may result in affecting teens’ concepts of friendship and intimacy. "The whole idea behind intimacy is self-disclosure. Now they're doing self-disclosure to an audience of hundreds." This is why they often meet difficulty enduring long-lasting and effective relationships later in their lives. There are also concerns that young people are substituting their online relationships for physical ones, by spending more time in front of the computer than they do in the real world.
As a result of all those potential threads that social media hides, the whole perception of the real world changes for children. Starting to use the Internet at too early stages of their lives, they never fully develop the ability to entertain themselves outside in the real world between real people. This is the reason why parents need to maintain an open dialogue and encourage children to share both good and bad online experiences. Thus, make sure they keep up with the latest social media crazes and work with their children making them realise the threads of the cyber space.