Is Social Media Safe for Your Children?

Geralt, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

How parents feel about their kids being on social media, its effects, and ways both children and parents can avoid issues 

As social media has become more popular and developed, more people have been using it, especially teenagers, who are among its most common users. This phenomenon gained significant momentum with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Because people had nothing to do and couldn’t go anywhere unless they truly needed to, everyone moved to social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter (now X). These three platforms became the most popular social media platforms to be on, and as they gained popularity, it became increasingly regulated for teens to be on them as well. However, sooner or later, problems arose with these platforms, and parents began to question whether their children were truly safe on the apps. Later, studies even began to show that social media could affect a teen’s mental health in both positive and negative ways.  

When talking about social media and teens’ safety on it, it is often the case that parents are always among the most concerned about the situation because most are always worried about whether their children are actually safe on social media or not.  

Parent Kristy Day shared her perspective about the safety of her children on social media.   

“I think relatively safe only because my kids are mature; however, I can’t minimize the possibility of real danger knowing that at any moment they could be interacting with a dangerous adult,” Day said.  

Some parents also have preferences on which social media platforms they would prefer their children to be using, if given the choice.   

“If I had my choice, it would be YouTube Kids or YouTube because there are set restrictions and less interaction other than comments, and there are many educational videos that can be accessed through YouTube,” Day added.  

As a parent, Day also stressed the importance of providing different restrictions on her children’s social media usage to ensure their safety.  

“[I enforce] time limit restrictions in which they are only allowed on certain apps after a certain time,” according to Day. “For my youngest child, I have also set content restrictions and only allow her to access TikTok and Snapchat through my phone.”  

Despite her efforts to shield her children from the potential dangers of social media, she is still concerned about the types of content they can access.  

“I am more concerned than I care to admit because there are many mature topics out there that they can explore without guidance, and there is accessibility to adults and inappropriate content,” Day added.  

Day kept a very serious face while speaking about the topic and had a very firm tone as well. She was very buckled down about social media, and she made it very clear.  Most parents most likely feel the same way. There are many concerns for parents about social media. So, how is social media affecting children’s mental health? Are there benefits?  

Social media does have its benefits, such as social interaction with people around the world, connections with people who have similar interests. It can provide important information and can even help teens find inspiration, as well as give tips or advice on how to approach certain things.  

While these are all benefits of social media, there are also things we need to avoid, and it would help a great deal if there were tips on how to avoid these situations.  

Some of the negative situations that should be avoided would be interactions with predators, any kind of harassment or bullying, addictive behaviors, and/or exposure to the wrong type of content. There have been multiple cases involving social media and these issues, especially having to do with cyberbullying and interaction with predators on the platforms.  

According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory, the following can be done to fix these issues,   

• Be cautious about what you share.   

• reach out for help  

• protect yourself and others  

• model responsible social media behavior   

• report cyberbullying, online abuse, and exploitation  

These are a few of the many ways to either help avoid or address these issues in general. To see more, visit the following site: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory.  

If people continue to follow these steps, everyone can better use social media and ensure that it’s safer for teens and users in general.