Social media has a significant impact on both children and adolescents. Therefore, there are many complaints to some platforms as well as restrictions.
Finally, the American technology company Meta announced that users under the age of 16 on the Instagram platform will not be able to use the “live broadcast” feature without parental permission and “automatic blur” feature in private messages without parental permission.
Merve Kantarcı Çulha’ya Children and Adolescent Psychiatry Explanations Dr. Zeynep Zorlu gave information about the advantages and disadvantages of social media for children.
Why is the use of social media and live broadcasting live for children?
Watching the lives served with perfect aspects of idealized-non-negotiations on social media and not getting enough attention on social media, depression in children and adolescents can increase the frequency of anxiety disorder and loneliness.
Live broadcasts and unlimited use of social media can disrupt the sleep patterns and cause distraction, and this can adversely affect academic success and general health status. Shares and live broadcasts arranged using filters can lead to unhealthy body image perception and eating disorders in children and adolescents.
Live broadcasts may increase the risk of cyber bullying and harassment as they offer instant interaction, and there is a risk that the person’s position will be shared unintentionally. Parent permission can prevent children from sharing such information thoughtlessly and maintain their privacy.
Children can easily coincide with content (violence, obscene, etc.) that are not suitable for their age. The lack of closure of automatic blur increases the safety of children by preventing the sharing of potentially sensitive or inappropriate images. This restriction can help children get less exposure to peer prints such as being popular.
What is the effect of live broadcasts on social media on the self -perception of children?
Social media usually offers a filtered and idealized lifestyle. This can lead to children and adolescents to compare their own lives and appearance to others and feel inadequacy.
Live broadcasts can improve approval and appreciation in children through instant feedback mechanism. This may cause their self -confidence to depend on external factors.
It also allows some people to become popular in a short time and become a “phenomenon”. This may affect the value judgments of children and adolescents and cause them to focus only on popularity.
Live broadcasts can cause children and adolescents to try different virtual identities and search for role models. This can sometimes lead to adoption of negative behaviors or unhealthy ideals. The instant interaction and rapid feedback of live broadcasts may increase the search for instant satisfaction and impatience in children.
As a result, such restrictions brought by Instagram can be considered as an important step in terms of protecting children and adolescents from the potential damages of social media. It is of great importance that parents are conscious of this issue and direct their children to the use of social media.
