Analyzing the Impact of Social Media on Children and Teenagers

This essay examines the impact of social media on children and teenagers, addressing both the advantages and disadvantages of its usage. It highlights the ethical and legal concerns, such as the misuse of uploaded pictures and the vulnerability of children to online predators. The essay also delves into the social aspects, discussing how social media can enable self-expression but also lead to depression due to negative comments and exposure to unrealistic lifestyles. It further investigates the effects on children aged 11 to 14, outlining mitigation techniques that parents and governments can implement to minimize the negative impact of social media, referencing research and statistics to support its claims regarding addiction and psychological well-being. The essay references various studies and surveys to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS
Social Media for Children and Teenagers
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS
Essay plan
With the enhancement in technology, in today’s world social media has become a crucial
part of both professional as well as personal life of majority of individuals across the world. In
today’s world of technology, today’s teens are the first generation and cannot imagine life
without internet as well as the various devices that connect them with the virtual world.
Considering the fact that today’s teenagers are tomorrow’s adult, it is highly require to prevent
any situation or intervention that possess the potential of imposing negative impact on their
social development. The topic to be covered includes impact of social media usage by children
and teenagers. Hence, the high relevancy of the debate about whether social media should be
used by children or teenagers or not with the contemporary social condition, have enhanced my
interest in the above mentioned topic.
Considering the fact that the module clearly focus on the impact of information systems
on human from social, professional, legal as well as ethical perspective, as per my opinion, the
topic that is “impact of social media on the on the children and teenagers” does certainly fits in
this module. When it comes to the ethical and legal aspect of the topic, children and teenagers
are often found to upload their picture on various social media platforms that are often illegally
downloaded and misused. Hackers are found to consider children and teenagers their target since
majority of them is more vulnerable both in terms of technology as well as social experience.
The social aspect of the topic includes both positive and negative impact on the children. While
several children feel social media platforms enables them to express themselves, often racism,
negative comment from a huge mass of people leads to depression. According to a survey
constructed in the year 2015, children who are addicted to social media such as Facebook or snap
chat tend to be more self-conscious due to over exposure to celebrity lifestyles and complex

2SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS
perceptions that needs psychological maturity to understand (Hamm et al. 2015). In the final
essay, I will be investigating on the above mentioned aspects on the children of age between 11
to 14 years. The essay will be chiefly comprised of a brief introduction on the topic, advantages
and disadvantages of social media usage by teenagers and the mitigation techniques that can be
taken by the parents as well as government to minimize the negative impact of social media on
the children.
Summary of the articles
According to researchers several advantages as well as disadvantages can be pointed out
when it comes to effect of social media, both advantage as well as disadvantage of the usage of
social media platforms can be evidenced (Allen et al. 2014). The fact that usage of social media
is a burning issue in the United Kingdom, have inspired me to research about the factor in depth
(Best, Manktelow and Taylor 2014). Several parents are seriously worried about the impact of
social media platforms on the development of their offspring. While social media platforms are
actively used by academic intuitions for information sharing and their beneficial purpose, a good
number of children and teenagers in UK are found to be glued to social media platform and s a
result are getting addicted to it. According to statistics, about 51 percent of teenagers of age
range 13 years to 17 years are found to be using social media platform on a daily basis (Oberst et
al. 2017). Of this, 71 percent of the teens are found to be the users of Facebook and 52 percent
the users of Instagram (Sampasa-Kanyinga and Lewis 2015).

3SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS
Reference List
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social connectedness in adolescents: The positives and the potential pitfalls. The Educational and
Developmental Psychologist, 31(1), pp.18-31.
Best, P., Manktelow, R. and Taylor, B., 2014. Online communication, social media and
adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review. Children and Youth Services Review, 41,
pp.27-36.
Duquenoy, P., Jones, S. and Blundell, B.G., 2008. Ethical, legal and professional issues in
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Ermann, M.D. and Shauf, M.S., 2002. Computers, ethics, and society. Oxford University Press,
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Hamm, M.P., Newton, A.S., Chisholm, A., Shulhan, J., Milne, A., Sundar, P., Ennis, H., Scott,
S.D. and Hartling, L., 2015. Prevalence and effect of cyberbullying on children and young
people: A scoping review of social media studies. JAMA pediatrics, 169(8), pp.770-777.
Oberst, U., Wegmann, E., Stodt, B., Brand, M. and Chamarro, A., 2017. Negative consequences
from heavy social networking in adolescents: The mediating role of fear of missing out. Journal
of adolescence, 55, pp.51-60.
Quinn, M.J., 2010. Ethics for the information age. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Sampasa-Kanyinga, H. and Lewis, R.F., 2015. Frequent use of social networking sites is
associated with poor psychological functioning among children and
adolescents. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(7), pp.380-385.

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Stamatellos, G., 2007. Computer ethics: A global perspective. Jones & Bartlett Learning.