Social Media: Put an End to Underage Use
Social Media: Put an End to Underage Use
There is no doubt that technology today, and the use of the internet is an outstanding resource, when it is used appropriately. Today’s society consists of many young bloggers, video- bloggers, and a ton of social media (networking) users. One of the biggest social media sites used for interaction among peers, and families, is Facebook. Facebook became popular instantly as a social media site in which you can share your thoughts, opinions, photos, and videos with friends, and family. To register for Facebook the required age is 13 years old, and one can register by entering a birthdate; with no questions asked, a click of a button, and an agreement to
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Bullying has gotten so bad, that it has often lead to self-harm of those being bullied, and tragically, even suicide. For the bullies? The use of social media has made their targets an even greater target. Not only can they physically abuse their victims, but they can mentally and emotionally abuse their victims 24/7. If that does not sound bad, just think about how many of those bullies are being influenced by their peers! Peer pressure is one of the leading causes of criminal activity among teens today. Whether it be for their own personal gain, to please others, or lack of self-control, teens are easily influenced by their peers, and are more willing to give in if there stands any chance of a positive outcome. Teens under peer influence and pressure can be coerced into bullying, physical fights, drug use, underage drinking, and more. With social media, not only is a child able to be influenced by their peers negatively at school, or when they are out for a movie, but they are able to be influenced by peers from everywhere at any time, with any content. Our worries about little Johnny who is raised in a small town, and having a couple friends who may be a bad influence, just turned into little Johnny being influenced by Kylie from California, who posts videos of herself doing drugs; Sam from the UK, who makes daily posts degrading women; and Kevin from an unknown location, posting pornographic images. These are
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
It is often said that there is no to little bullying on social media and it does not have an impact on anyone. It is very clear to see that people bully on social media all the time and it has a big impact on everyone. It is very important when on social media to not bully because of the the effects on the bully, the effects on the individual, and the effect on the family. Then, maybe one day there will be no more bullying on the internet because of laws put in. Social media definitely leads to more
Bullying has become a very big problem over 55,000 kids have gone suicidal due to bullying, that is 8,000 kids a year, 22 a day, and 1 an hour.
Bullies start at a young age and carry on, this helps them feel good about what they are doing and who they are as a person. The only way to make a difference and try to stop bullying and cyberbullying is if the parents are there to help. “Parents of bullies are advised to take the problem seriously, looking for the causes of anger or frustration, letting them know that hurtful behavior will not be tolerated, supervising their behavior more closely, “punishing”bullying with positive acts toward others and teaching nonviolent ways of solving problems.” (PERSONAL HEALTH pg. 3) This illustrates that not only the school and parents but the community to must collaborate to control bullying. Parents need to supervise their children on social media and all places in their life, until the children can understand that this is not okay and that we can stand up to bullying. Bullying and cyberbullying can lead to serious causes to the victims and everyone around them. “It is found that children who bully are at risk for engaging in more serious violent acts, like fighting frequently and carrying weapons.” (PERSONAL HEALTH pg.) This proves that the actions of the bullies are long term effects. If someone is to hurt themselves or one another because of how someone made them feel not only will those certain people be hurting inside but the other family and friends in their lives. All of this combined shows that people do bully and
Cyberbullying has been on the rise in the past years because of the rise in the usage of social media. People tend to go to social media with positive intentions, but not everyone’s intentions are positive. Social media can bring what usually takes place at school to the household. For bullies, cyberbullying requires less physical contact and their bullying
The National Voices for Equality, Education, and Enlightenment (NVEE) reported that every 7 minutes a child is bullied, and 85 percent of the time no attempt at intervention is made. Children, teenagers, and even adults are skipping school or missing work to avoid their peers because of the extreme amount of fear they have of being intimidated or belittled. Technology then takes this a step further because even if an individual does not attend school or work they are still at risk of facing these same issues on the internet. The Yale School of Medicine also conducted a new review of studies, and their findings indicate that there is an apparent correlation between bullying, being bullied, and suicide. All of this information is not only sickening, but also incredibly alarming because we are the ones creating the technology that these problems are stemming
There is no doubt that technology has changed our society. Now things are faster, easier, and more efficient than ever before. With all these changes, bullying has been impacted in a positive and negative way. Although technology has given victims of bullying an outlet to complete education without going to school, technology has made it easier for bullying to happen on anonymous apps and social media sites.
These days bullying isn’t just taking place at school on the playground, or in the hallways, it is taking place online. Today, and in recent years kids and young teens will only face more and more bullying as things evolve with social media, things like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are only going to become increasingly popular and new platforms will be made as well. Bullying affects people so much that it can
Bullying has increased drastically because of technology. The power of the media has influenced the lives of many Americans negatively. With a touch of a finger away, Social Media’s such as Snapchat and Instagram have allowed people to not use them in a positive way. Cyberbullying is a resulting factor. People use those media platforms to bring people’s self-esteem down. People who use these trendy network platforms allows people to help spread gossip and rumors anonymously. People who get bully among these social media platforms have a greater risk of committing suicide and self-harm. Technology has made it much easier for people to bully using electronic devices.
Fahy et al. (2016) showed that adolescents bullied through social media are likely to suffer psychologically. Therefore, an additional step to take may be to encourage positive interactions with others on social media. Encourage them to add genuine friends on social media and delete dramatic or those searching to cause trouble to form more positive connections to potentially prevent this issue from occurring.
Furthermore, The amount of bullying on social media is outstanding! Some targets of social media bullying have said the bullying follows them everywhere. According to, “What is Cyberbullying?” “60% of targets said that their online experiences as a target of cyberbullying affected them at school, home, and with friends, and reported experiencing feelings of frustration, anger and sadness.” Another quote from “What is Cyberbullying?” “81% said that cyber bullies think it is funny.” Something that a bully thinks is funny can really harm someone's life and well being.
Cyber bullying is becoming a bigger and bigger problem on social networking sites. There have been quite a few teenage suicides in which cyber bullying seems to have played a role. In at least one case, the suicide of Alexis Pilkington, the bullying kept going on her tribute page even after her death. (Glor) “Cyber-Bullying can cause the victim to become chronically depressed and to experience a complete loss of self-esteem. A short exposure to Cyber-Bullying can have long term effects. It can result in Cyber-Bullying Suicides.” (Cyber-Bullying Suicides - Cyber Bullycide Victims ) It has many forms such as degradation, harassment, cyber stalking, impersonation, flaming (using vulgar and angry language to start fights with the victim), password theft and hacking accounts, posting photos or videos, among several others. (Cyber-Bullying Suicides - Cyber Bullycide Victims ) Bullying has been around way before the internet, but now that it is online, rumors, pictures or other forms of cyber bullying make their way around the community much faster so it is easier to humiliate someone in front of more people. “In the Internet era, it appears there are more people interested in spewing hate than in countering it. On the social networking sites and on YouTube, inflammatory, hate-filled content overwhelms the limited efforts to
Many people do not realize how serious bullying has become. If you look at statistics suicides due to bullying have increased over just a few short years. This has become a very big problem for not only the victim but the bully as well as it affect both of them. School bullying is mentally destructive to not only the victims, but bullies because of the harmful words, harassment, and physical violence involved as well as the consequences for the bully.
The “Internet generation” consists of people who are comfortable putting their lives online, conversing on the Internet, emailing, updating statuses, writing on each other’s Facebook walls, and having many friends, whether they know them from the off-line world or only from the online world. Using social media websites
At any given time of day, anyone can access an abundant amount of information at the click of a button. Men, women, kids, teenagers, adults and even the elderly are learning how to use the internet to their advantage. Among all the benefits the internet has provided to us, online communication has proven to be the most beneficial. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have made it easy for everyone to stay in contact with each other. Regardless of how far apart a family member or friend is, everyone is just one click away. If someone is not having a good day, they can share their feelings with everyone in a matter of seconds. These social networking sites have become quite popular among adolescents. They allow teens to stay more connected with their friends outside of school. Now teens have become more obsessed with their friends Facebook or Twitter status than engaging in outdoor activities like football or