The Dangers of Social Media for Teenagers: How to Deal with them?

Social media sites are those that help us connect with people using the internet. There are literally hundreds of platforms that we can call as social media. The primary objective of social media was to let people connect with each other, friends, schoolmates and professionals. In the beginning, people used these platforms for connectivity. But as time passed, these sites lost attraction so they had to do something to keep the users engaged.

They came up with an idea to introduce new features. These features engaged the users. But the social sites lost control over what was shared, posted and the social media became risky for people. Many teens live streamed their suicide attempts, teens were kidnapped after they befriended with strangers and the fake news created a storm. Now social sites are not as good as they used to be. If we see between the beginning and to the present time, many social media dangers are hidden that we are going to discuss.

What are The Dangers of Social Media for Teenagers:

Following are the obvious the dangers of social media for teens.

1.  Privacy is compromised:

There is no privacy when you share everything on the social sites. In a study it was found, over 90% of parents share more than 1000 photos of a child before it turns five. This is really dangerous and the way the parents expose their kids to the world is not safe. Teens share their check-in and check-out locations, their private details, contact numbers, family and private photos are shared with their friends. And many of these are strangers. 

2.  Sharing Too Many Details is Not Wise:

A teen adds unknown people and strangers. They are not so smart to decide which person is good and what is bad for them. You will see kids and teens sharing more details and images than young and adult people. This is the obsession of the social media and the influence of social sites. Teens follow what they see in their newsfeed. They try to create images like other people. They also share details that should have never been revealed.

3.  Internet Addiction is Harmful:

The social media is with the internet. Without a net connection, you cannot use social sites and apps. This means the teens are first obsessed with the internet. They think more about spending time and using the internet than their studies and other important things. They also get to access the adult content, porn images, and sites that excite their emotions. 

4.  Cyberbullying is Common:

Dangers of social networking? You will find a lot of bullies on social media. Teens and kids are bullied as well as body shamed on the social media sites. This is really harmful to a child who never knows what bullying is but faces it at such a young age. Parents will not know their child is bullied but the kid will lose self-confidence and it also ruins his personality. Bullied teens normally grow as bullies and practice the same thing on other kids. 

5.  Adult and Porn Content:

Dangers of social media for youth? Facebook and other social platforms had promised to take down the adult content. But they have failed badly in this. You will find so many fake IDs sharing adult and porn images as well as videos. Many teens use social media just for such content. Parents should pay attention to such kids as they will destroy their life. The adult content also encourages sexting in teens and this is more dangerous.

How to Deal with These Dangers?

Social media is dangerous? Dealing with social media dangers is not easy. Prevention is always better than cure and this sentence puts forward a practical solution for the parents. So the parents should try to restrict the use of smartphones, internet as well as the social media in their kids. Children should not be allowed to use such sites until they are smart and grow older.

Another way is to track them and keep a check on their internet and social media. Parents should use a powerful parental control app to monitor social media. With monitoring or spy app, the parents will keep eyes on the online activities of the children. The app will allow parents to check social media use, internet use, browsing history, instant messengers as well as phone calls and text messages.