What is the appropriate age to be on social media?
Snapchat has one hundred and seventy-eight million active daily users. A recent survey conducted that 78% of ten to twelve year olds have social media accounts. Despite the recommended minimum age limit of being thirteen, platforms like Facebook and Snapchat have over a thousand of ten to eighteen year olds using the app, which was directed by ComRes.
A number of people believe that social media sites such as, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have failed to protect young children. 1 in 4 children have experienced something distressing on a social networking site. Following this, there were over 12,000 counselling sessions with young people who talked to Childline about online issues last year.
A false sense of connection is very common with adolescents, who use social media sites. Numerous people, who use social media, think they are connected to the people who are following them. However, they don’t know who the person behind the screen is, and could be anyone of any age. The NSPCC has admitted that they have had twice the amount of reports of emotional child abuse online, which relates to receiving 27 reports of online abuse a day. Studies showed that in 2009/ 2010 they acknowledged 3341 reports, whereas in 2016/2017 the figure increased to 10,009. 1 in 3 young people report having experienced an incident that felt threatening to their mental, physical or emotional well-being. The immediacy provided by social media, means that it is available to predators as well as friends. Only 10% of victims inform a parent or adult of their abuse (most fear that the adult will blame them for it, or overreact, which would make the situation worse). Kids are vulnerable to the practice of cyber-bullying and dangerous relationships. 1 in 10 repeated cyber bullied teens attempting suicide. Hazardous relationships such as online relationships have many raiders waiting to hunt down their prey. Most hunters get their prey, which leads 1 in 8 attacked on 12 year old are thinking about suicide.
A student named Myles from The Nottingham Emmanuel School stated “In my opinion I think that social media isn’t good because it cuts off your social life and makes you more distant with your family and friends.”
On the other hand, Mr Khan, a computer science teacher in The Nottingham Emmanuel School stated that “Social media is a great learning tool. I use social media as a professional tool, as it is important for my work; to find out what is happening. If you are a part of social media, it is a great responsibility. I recommend children to be using social media at the age of 14/15. This is because you have more of a responsibility as you are reaching GSCEs. ” This shows that teachers and students can both have strong and differing opinions on the same question.
Many students believe that Social Media is positive and helps them with their lives. A Year 7 student from The Nottingham Emmanuel School said “I got myself in trouble, social media used to be a big part of my life. I am very happy without it, I will be going back on social media when I can trust myself, I think I would be in Year 10 when I go on social media. ” Nevertheless, a sixth form student named Daniel thought that “Social media is can be both positive and negative at the same time, but it really just depends on your maturity. Your maturity would reflect on the way you use the Media.” This shows students of different ages respond to Social Media contrarily. Not only does it helps their education but Social media makes it very easy to connect with like-minded people. It can also make a person more self-assured, because not everyone is confident in their social lives. In addition, for many people, being online is a further extension of their normal lives with the outside world. More than a third admitted they had made friends online with people they have never met in person.
Another reason why online platforms are good is because they make learning easier, since many teachers use the platforms to contact their students to set tasks and give further help with the topics. There are many examples of this, but two of the main ones are:
Khan Academy
Duo Lingo
Moodle
Email
These sites provide a way in which students communicate with teachers for further help.
Furthermore, social media makes studying more collaborative and efficient. A recent study in colleges found a trend that over 70% of students feel that the technology they use to study should be tailored to their needs.
Other students also gave us their views; we can see this from our video.
There are many positive things to social media, and there are many negative things as well. Mostly, the views are negative and the main reason is privacy settings. Social media has affected many people’s lives, when it comes to their privacy. On social media accounts, such as Snap Chat, people are posting what happens in their daily lives. When they do this, they do not know the dangers, which they are going to face later on. The things that are posted remain available indefinitely. Some may seem harmless, but a countless amount of people can see your picture and can track you down. 79% children of the age 10-12 are active on their social media accounts, posting what they are doing in their house and where they are. They update after every half an hour. Social Media is used an awful lot, but most of the users are below the average age. Social media can affect many lives and it can go very far, we need to consider the pros and cons of social media, but be aware of the younger people online.
By: Natalia, Emmanuella & Trisha