Social media has had a great impact on how we live our lives.

In today’s society, you can pull out your phone to take a picture and post it on social media for the world to see. 

As good as social media may sound on paper, there are many reasons it can be dangerous, especially for children. 

According to an article from the National Institutes of Health, up to 95% of children age 13-17 are on a social media platform, “with more than a third saying they use social media ‘almost constantly’” and nearly 40% of children ages 8-12 also on social media platforms. Personally, when I was 8 years old, I was still playing with my Spiderman action figures. I could not imagine anyone of that age being on social media. Children have completely lost their innocence due to the internet. 

According to the same article, “there are ample indicators that social media can have a profound risk of harm to the mental-health and well-being of children and adolescents.” 

According to a recent report done by the CDC, 37% of middle schools report the occurrence of online cyberbullying, “at least once a week,” followed by 25% of high schools and 6% of elementary schools. 

Throughout my time in middle school and high school, I have heard about students in my school getting bullied on social media. 

 I remember there was a guest speaker who came to my school and spoke about cyberbullying, and how every 13 seconds, a child dies due to self-harm because of cyberbullying or sextortion. 

The sad part is that cyberbullying and sextortion will never go away unless web developers ban the use of social media for minors, and everybody knows that will most likely never happen.

 The way I think of it, social media is still fairly new to society. 

It has existed for maybe 20 years, so the way social media impacts children is only getting worse over time. The stories that I hear make me not want to let my children on social media, at least until they are 16 years old.

According to the CDC, suicide rates for teens increased by more than 30% between 2007 and 2015, and 26% of children felt worse about their own lives due to what they see on social media.

Of course, bullying existed way before social media was ever a thought. But social media has made it easier for kids to bully other kids by just being able to sit behind a screen and post anything and everything on the internet. 

 Unfortunately, cyberbullying isn’t the only reason social media can be troubling for the youth. 

There are many other safety threats and concerns that the public has become aware of. 

One of these safety concerns is online predators and sextortion. 

According to an article by the FBI, from October 2021 and March 2023, Homeland Security and the FBI received over 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors, ending with over 20 suicides.

Sadly, there are so many ways that families are being torn apart due to children being on social media, and it needs to be stopped. 

According to an article by NBC, a 13-year-old boy from Utah was being sexually groomed by an older man from over 100 miles away. The boy was later kidnapped and taken across state lines. Thankfully, he was found safe just a day after the kidnapping. 

After all of this, it looks like social media is not going to change.

 If children are going to be on social media, both they and their parents need to be aware of the dangers to prevent any of this from happening.