It has been more than 18 years since Facebook was launched. This site was hailed as a revolutionary step towards internet communication and connecting people. Since then, a lot has changed. It has now turned into a business tycoon who owns a number of other social apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, and others.
Initially, social media was used for communication and connecting with friends. Facebook had a model, in the beginning, to let school and college students talk to their friends and classmates using the internet. But then it started to change and has now more than 4 billion users at the time worldwide, half of the world population uses Facebook.
There have been many new developments and Facebook has changed a lot. With this site, many others also emerged like Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, WeChat, and dating sites and apps. All these have changed the way people used to communicate and interact with their friends. Now social media is also dangerous for teens, young people, and little kids.
Social Media Dangers For Kids And Teens
When it comes to what dangers social media sites have, there are many. We are going to talk about these in detail and see how these affect the kids and teens. We will also talk about the measures and steps parents can take to protect their children from the possible social media dangers.
1. Cyberbullying
It is the biggest challenge for teens and kids nowadays. Every social media site has become a hub of bullying for new users, teens, and kids. More than 52% of American kids and teens have been bullied once in their life. Parents don’t understand such things.
Bullying has serious effects and outcomes for the teens and kids. The young brains cannot accept the hard bullying at a young age and may start losing self-confidence. It is a sort of attack on the self-respect of kids and teens. They may also turn out to be bullies in the future.
2. Sexting
There was a time when people used to communicate through text messages. With time, everything changed. Now the instant messengers like WhatsApp, Messenger, and others are considered the best and fastest options for communication and sharing information. To this extent, of sharing information and communication the use of these apps is fine.
But a lot of teens use such apps for sexting. It is a practice of sharing private and intimate pictures, making sexual discussions. Even teens use video calling features to make video calls to their partners or matches from the social and dating sites. This is all happening due to social media websites that people cannot comprehend.
3. Body Shaming
We believe, most of you might have received hate comments. People on social media sites have become more violent and of extremist nature. They leave no stone unturned to bully every teen and child. They don’t mind passing negative marks about the body and physique of the kids.
Moreover, teens and kids see perfect body images on social media sites. With exposure to such images which are edited after a lot of work, teens start thinking about those images as the perfect ones. They believe they cannot look like these models. This leads to a sort of complex in the kids.
4. Effect On Brain Development
Multiple studies have revealed how social media apps and sites affect the brain development of teens and kids. The number of social media likes on posts also affects kids. A recent study has found out that the use of social media sites is causing depression in young and teen girls.
Parents should think about such things. We cannot ignore all this at all. As teens become addicted to social media apps, their brain development is affected. They become emotional. Kids also start to lose decision-making skills as their decisions are influenced by social media preferences.
Making Social Media Secure for Kids and Teens
We discussed how social media poses serious dangers and harms to teens and kids. In light of these harms, we need to devise a robust plan to protect kids from internet dangers and make sure they don’t get these harmful effects.
Below are some suggestions in this regard to secure their social media accounts on smartphone chat apps. Parents should follow these safety and security steps as soon as possible.
1. Educate Your Kids
The first thing parents need to do in this regard is to guide their kids about the possible dangers of social media sites. Kids should be educated. Real life stories need to be shared with the teens to let them understand how unsafe social sites are. This will raise awareness among the kids.
2. Become Tech-Savvy Parents
The next important thing we can do is to become tech-savvy parents. It simply means we should grow our knowledge read about the technology, the possible dangers, ways and means to protect our children, the dangers of social media and smartphones and how we can technology safe for our new generations.
3. Set Rules For Screens And Screen Time
Along with this, parents also need to create rules when it comes to the use of the internet, smartphones as well as social media. Teens and kids should not be allowed to use smartphones more than one or two hours. They should be encouraged for sports and such other activities.
4. Use a Parental Control App
Lastly, parents should use the best parental control tools or an Android smartphone spy. A single app that offers the necessary and essential features for tracking social media use of the kids will suffice in this regard.
1. Educate Your Kids
The first thing parents need to do in this regard is to guide their kids about the possible dangers of social media sites. Kids should be educated. Real life stories need to be shared with the teens to let them understand how unsafe social sites are. This will raise awareness among the kids.
2. Become Tech-Savvy Parents
The next important thing we can do is to become tech-savvy parents. It simply means we should grow our knowledge read about the technology, the possible dangers, ways and means to protect our children, the dangers of social media and smartphones and how we can technology safe for our new generations.
3. Set Rules For Screens And Screen Time
Along with this, parents also need to create rules when it comes to the use of the internet, smartphones as well as social media. Teens and kids should not be allowed to use smartphones more than one or two hours. They should be encouraged for sports and such other activities.
4. Use a Parental Control App
Lastly, parents should use the best parental control tools or an Android smartphone spy. A single app that offers the necessary and essential features for tracking social media use of the kids will suffice in this regard.
With features like the screen recorder and monitoring internet history, parents can protect their kids and make sure they use social media in safe manners.
Final Words On Social Media Security
Social media and online chats can be great ways for kids to stay in touch and build skills if done safely. Keep the tips above in mind to ensure that your students and teens are safe on their phones.
Final Words On Social Media Security
Social media and online chats can be great ways for kids to stay in touch and build skills if done safely. Keep the tips above in mind to ensure that your students and teens are safe on their phones.
