Thesis Implementation Plan

Over the past decade, the use of technology has exploded. Through smart phones and applications we can access a new digital world of social media. For example, Facebook has over 750 million current users (Bosslet). Gwenn O'Keeffe and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson take a look at the eruption of technology use in their article, “The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families.” According to a recent poll, 22% of teenagers log on to their favorite social media site more than 10 times a day, and more than half of adolescents log on to a social media site more than once a day (Clarke-Pearson, O’Keefe). A highly debated topic among researchers is whether social media has more positive

The most popular social media outlets include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube. As an article, The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families from the American Academy of Pediatrics states, children are at risk for “...inappropriate content; lack of understanding of online privacy issues; and outside influences of third-party advertising groups.” More specifically, inappropriate content refers to the ability for children to quickly send and receive explicit images and messages. According to “Sex and Tech: Results of a Survey of Teens and Young Adults,” about 20% of teens admitted to posting nudes of themselves. Understanding of online privacy issues refers to children to are sharing too much information that may market an individual negatively. Lastly, influences of third-party advertising refers to websites posting advertisements based on gender, age, and interests. All three of these components have consequences--emotional

When it comes to teens using the Internet and social media applications, there are many opinions people have in regards to security, privacy, and addiction for these luxuries. It seems that every day, I see news articles, blogs, and other posts about teens and the way they use the Internet. Mainly, the concern that parents need to have in order to protect their children from being personally identified or having an addiction to apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. When reading this book, I found that this whole concept of teens using this type of network goes deeper than people may think.

Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., Smith, A., &Zickuhr, K. (2010). Social media and young adults. Pew

It vital for parents to be aware and continuously monitor their kid’s online activity. For the most part, children in the United States have an easy access to technology; moreover, it is even part of the public education system. Many kids have a social media account, which is viewed as a norm today. Author Fields indicates that “adolescence is a period of significant emotional, physical and social growth for both boys and girls” (Inside Social Life 139). During this time, where kids are discovering themselves, they can communicate and be impacted by a massively diverse population.

My primary audiences are employees responsible for the management of online content, and professionals in the field of Criminal Justice that have an interest in the risks of social networking. Parents of children and young people aged between eight and 17 years are incorporated as part of the audience. In general, I am targeting men and women that use social networking media to communicate.

Fitzpatrick states that over the past few years, MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter have all become abruptly popular. Adults find the social networking sites benign, but for children, it opens up the door to more dangers such as bullying, and online child predators who have made the internet their hunting ground. Fitzpatrick has also gathered information that in 2003 approximately 200,000 MySpace accounts were deleted because they were to be marked sexual predators. (Fitzpatrick)

The excessive utilization of technology in today’s society is a major contributing factor to distraction among the general population, consequently exposing our youth to adult-like subjects. The exaggeration of social networking sites alone, has led parents to disregard their routine obligations, therefore setting bad examples for their children and ignoring the responsibility of remaining great parental role models. Our technological advances have significantly promoted the ease of utilization of all the current social media sites. Once upon a time we chatted online, emailed and surfed the web with only the use of a computer. In today 's modern world there are hand held devices such as cell phones and tablets, with a simple swipe of the touch screen your entire account is accessible. Over the past 10-15 years, many new social networks have been created and they seem to gradually become more appealing to the average human. Every time a new website is customized, the contents are more advanced than the last, making communication almost effortless, allowing for more rapid use. "Around 59 percent of children have already used a social network by the time they are ten, and 43 percent have messaged strangers online by the age of twelve"(Williams 1). Caretakers need to start being more observant to the dangers that their kids are facing and monitor their use, so that they are able to appropriately instill safety guidelines. An

The Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that in 2009 there were more than 2,600 incidents of adults using the Internet to entice children. With numbers like that all parents should be monitoring their kids and knowing what they're doing online. But authorities say many parents are clueless about what their kids are doing on social networking sites (p1 Ph 9).

As a young fourteen year old opens up her laptop she logs on to the well known social media site we all know, Facebook. As the child scrolls down her news feed filled with bullying, adult content, and drugs she suddenly gets a new message from a handsome fellow named john. The naive girl has no idea that "John" is actually a 54 year old pedophile lurking through the web for his next young victim. In this day and age social media consumes people’s lives. Many argue what age should kids be allowed to enter the world of Facebook. Although letting young teens on social media familiarizes them with the internet, the required age to be on Facebook should be sixteen because kids are immature and are more susceptible to predators when online.

My choice of this demographic is twofold. First, this is an age group which has adopted social media as part of their life. They are comfortable with the technology, and most are avid users. The second reason is that teens are teachable and willing to try new things or adopt new behaviors. Youth seem to be more motivated to change than to older adults. (Glanz, Rimer, & Viswanath, 2008) It is also this age group who are most affected by the societal trend away from relationships, so they would naturally gain benefit from increased social relationships.

Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have exploded in recent years and young surfers in particular have become ardent fans of this dynamic and high-tech way to connect with the wider world around them, communicating with friends and hooking up with like-minded people. But as with everything in the virtual world, parents do need to understand how their children are interacting on social networking sites, and be sure their children know what to do if they have experience a bad or dangerous situation.

Social media can be wonderful. It’s a way to connect with people around the world who are interested in the same things that you are. You’re able to make friends with people whom you’ve never met and engage with the world across a variety of topics. But, like anything, social media has a dark side as well. The anonymity of the internet allows for people to troll and bully others. It also allows people to pretend to be someone they’re not. Teenagers are still learning and figuring out themselves; they don’t know everything (even if they pretend that they do); and it’s a parent’s job to protect them from things that they don’t know how to be on the lookout for - such as sexual predators.

Social media is one of the fastest growing enterprises in the world (Jacobs, 2016). With the emergence of social media platforms, the nature of communication changed drastically. Research has found that 28% of people can't get out of bed in the morning before checking their Social Media profiles (Cash, Rae, Steele, Winkler, 2012). And, two billion people worldwide reported as avid social media users (Statista, 2017). Research has found that adolescents and young adults are the most well-represented population online, with over 95% accessing social media daily (Yonker et al, 2015). Young people are the first in this generation to have had access to social media through their entire adolescent years. They are "the earliest adopters and heaviest users of the newest Internet communication technologies such as social media" (Yonker et al., 2015). In fact, 81% of adolescents report that they use social media and 67% report using it at least once a day (Yonker et al., 2015).

Facebook has been praised as an excellent and ideal social network that facilitates the sharing of information and connects the people across all the ages. Both young and old generations are found using Facebook. However, questions have been raised about the suitability or how fit it is for the older to use Facebook. Thus, this question might be emanating from the perception that Facebook is only for the young and not the old. Currently, Facebook has over one billion users across the globe that cuts across all the ages, and the number is said to be increasing day after day. Also, older people are using Facebook more. In fact, from the year 2000 to the year 2009, the number of people of the ages between 50 and 64 who use Facebook increased