Social Media, Teenagers And Adolescents And The Internet

With social media growing and growing into a mass of accounts and profiles and different groups of people and clubs and websites and other things, what adolescents do on social media is something that many parents worry about. Not every parent is at ease with the fact that their child/teenager is out in open water; one young human being surrounded by millions of other human beings who are younger, the same age, or older than them. The article “Teenage social media butterflies may not be such a bad idea” takes a look at teenagers ' use of social media. Social media is a very important tool, allowing people to connect or continue their relationships without

Even with the dangerous developments in social media over the past several years, many parents have chosen to allow their children to use these sites despite age restrictions. There are three reasons to argue for age restrictions on social media sites: lack of supervision by parents, targeting of children by pedophiles, and the prevalence of children falsifying their age. The ability of pedophiles to conceivably target children with social media proves that this is an issue that parents need to examine so that they may better protect their children. The threat from pedophiles causes an enormous problem for millions of children on social media sites. Unfortunately, Western Daily Press states that “Pedophiles can get away with grooming young teenagers on social media sites.” My essay will argue that age restrictions need to be in place, and additional regulations should ensure that law enforcement agencies have the tools required to supervise underage children 's use of social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Quoting from Business Wire, “three out of four parents feel that social network sites are not protecting children.” According to Irish Independent, “four out of ten children falsify their age” when using social media. I will also argue that additional research on this topic can be used to raise the awareness of parents, and can also help to alert the children themselves to the danger. My essay will also examine questions, such as: How can social media sites protect

We live in a world where social media is a big part of our everyday life. It is most popular to teens between the ages of thirteen-to-seventeen year olds, who use social medias such as Instagram and Snapchat. However, there are more and more children who have social media who are under legal age of thirteen. The reason why adolescents should be at least thirteen to have social media is because that they have more knowledge about the dangers of social media and online predators. Children under that age may not be fully aware of what to do if they are targeted. Which is why adolescents under thirteen should not get any kind of social media.

In recent years the world has become very accepting; some might even go as far as to say overly accepting to the convenience of social media. There are a number of different applications, and websites that are available to us for example: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, Snapchat, Kik, and Pinterest to name a few. These different venues provide a means of communication, reconnecting with long-lost friends and family, networking for business, as well as it is an outlet for self-expression. But just like anything else that is put to good use; there are those who abuse these privileges. More often than not it is the children how suffer from the misuse of having the World Wide Web so easily available to all. With the emergence of catfishing, privacy intrusion, and cyber bullying; children are facing some serious dangers. The minimum age to open an account on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Kik, and Snapchat is 13. For Vine, Tinder and Yik Yak it 's 17. YouTube requires account holders be 18, but a 13-year-old can sign up with a parent 's permission. Despite these clearly stated and published age restrictions, large and growing numbers of children 12 and under are using social media networks, often with their parent 's knowledge and consent. (Graber, D. 2014). This essay is being presented to argue the need for better reinforcement of age restrictions on social media.

Teens are at more risk today because of social media then in the last 5,000 years of human existence. In the 1990’s the popularity of the internet changed the way people received information. Before social media teens developed their relationships by playing with each other on playgrounds, at the park, or in the neighborhood. With the expansion of social media teens soon became addicted to using various applications and websites. Technology is advancing so quickly that the dangers of social media are unpredictable. The growth of social media for teens is harmful because it is threatening teens well-being.

A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in which they discuss teens and their acts on social media, they state that, “…95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online and 80% of those online teens are users of social media sites” (Pew Research Center). With there being over seven billion people in the world, just think about how many teenagers there are. Information from these teens is being transferred all over the world through multiple forms of social media including: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Snapchat, Pinterest, and hundreds more. When you use social media, you are using, “forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content” (Merriam Webster). Social media can be a good thing, but there seems to be more of a bad influence than good when it comes to teenagers and their social media use.

With the rise of empires such as Facebook and Twitter who intensify greatly from Myspace, social media has become almost a norm in the lives of all people. When it comes to the youth, they are the vast contributors to consistent usage of sites like Facebook and other sites that are undeniably susceptible to online predators.

According to a study from the Pew Research Center, 92% of American teens go online to post, like, comment, tweet, and re-tweet at least a hundred photos a day. Preadolescents between the ages of 9-15 primarily use social media websites as a portal to communicate with past friends, find new ones, and to post about their day. However, the use of these sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube etc. can put young kids at risk of being bullied online, stalked by predators and pedophiles, and subjected to inappropriate pictures and videos. The truth is today youths lack the basic understanding of the dangers that lurk within social media, and therefore should not be allowed to use them until they can fully comprehend all the risks attached to using these sites.

"I am thankful my childhood was filled with imagination and bruises from playing outside instead of apps and how many likes you get on a picture" (Anonymous). In the 21st century, everyone's lives revolve around the next message or notification received from various social networking websites. It has become a societal norm to be glued to a screen, and face to face conversations are starting to become extinct. This is becoming a global issue as the world is constantly creating new ways to entertain people via technology. Out of all dangers, children are the most at risk when it comes to social media. Social media is extremely problematic to people everywhere because of the constant threat of online bullies, decreased privacy, and sexual

Youth are like magnets. They will latch on to the most popular trend whether it be clothes or shoes, beneficial or harmful. Children yearn to be cool, popular, and accepted. With these natural contained qualities, children are bound to come across social media, specifically a well-known site, Facebook. A site that enables communication. A site that might cause a child to be “lame” if not having an account. Whether or not children under thirteen should become users on this social media extravaganza is a regularly discussed topic. Some may argue against it simply because of the expected dangers that come along with any social network, but some believe that kids under thirteen should be allowed to partake in this site just as everybody else. These advocates are insightful. With considering the beneficial factors of Facebook including educational purposes and social development coupled with protective parenting, children under thirteen should most definitely have the deserved right of joining a quest they are regardless destined to pursue, Facebook.

Today, social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace are some of the most visited websites on the Internet. Minors have played a significant role in the popularity and success of social networking. With children having such an active presence on these types of sites, parents and legislators alike are concerned about the child’s online safety. A common suggestion is age verification. Ideally, age verification would exclude users over a specified age or under a specified age. However, age verification for social networking sites has its flaws. In Adam Thierer’s article, “Social Networking and Age Verification: Many Hard Questions; No Easy Solutions” he discusses the issue of children’s online safety. Thierer argues the

Firstly O'Keeffe, G.S. and Clarke-Pearson, K., (2011) state that “Using social media becomes a risk to adolescents more often than most adults realize. Most risks fall into the following categories: peer-to-peer; inappropriate content; lack of understanding of online privacy issues; and outside influences of third-party

Social networking is an intricate web that connects people together while at the same time making society become more distant from one another. The online world is vast and can be looked at and handled through an overwhelming amount of ways. Adolescents, those who are not quite adults, but are in that painstakingly important time of their life where they are self-discovering and processing

Now more than ever living in the age of technology, social media has impacted our lives

Some of the top benefits of social media over the years are that it is free to anyone, the content can get out to resources virtually immediately, and it can be delivered to a wide variety of people. For these reasons, communication through social media has become an extremely accessible and convenient way to communicate. It is also popular for those who need to be in contact with others. One example that comes to mind is a teenager who goes away on a trip to visit a friend or family. They can be hundreds of miles away but still talk to their parents as if they weren’t. Another example is a person who is shy and has a hard time making friends face-to-face, social media sites are a great way to meet people and build relationships.