Is 13 Too Young For Social Media?

 

13 years old is the minimum age a child can create a social media account on popular platforms like Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy was recently asked if he thought 13 was old enough:

“I, personally, based on the data I’ve seen, believe that 13 is too early … It’s a time where it’s really important for us to be thoughtful about what’s going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children,” Murthy said on “CNN Newsroom.”

 

According to the Pew Research Center report, “Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022,” practically every teenager in America (97%) uses the internet on a daily basis, with 46% saying they use it “constantly.”

A growing body of research has been measuring the impact of  internet and social media usage on teen health and mental well-being. Cyberbullying, child predators, and age-inappropriate content are some of the pitfalls of social media use that can impact a young person’s self-image and mental health. Social media has been shown to interfere with sleep and promote a sedentary lifestyle and obesity, which can have adverse health impacts lasting into adulthood.

The Pew survey found that social media platforms are typically accessed by using smartphones (95% of teens say they have one), desktop or laptop computers (90% use them), and gaming consoles (80%).

YouTube tops the 2022 teen online landscape among the platforms covered in the Center’s new survey, as it is used by 95% of teens. TikTok is next on the list of platforms that were asked about in this survey (67%), followed by Instagram and Snapchat, which are both used by about six-in-ten teens. After those platforms come Facebook with 32% and smaller shares who use Twitter, Twitch, WhatsApp, Reddit and Tumblr.

 

Using social media can be a tough habit to break because of the way it alters the brain’s chemistry, Allison Gordon and Pamela Brown discovered:

Psychiatrists like Dr. Adriana Stacey have pointed to this phenomenon for years. Stacey, who works primarily with teenagers and college students, previously told CNN using social media releases a “dopamine dump” in the brain.

“When we do things that are addictive like use cocaine or use smartphones, our brains release a lot of dopamine at once. It tells our brains to keep using that,” she said. “For teenagers in particular, this part of their brain is actually hyperactive compared to adults. They can’t get motivated to do anything else.”

 

It’s especially difficult when social media companies develop powerful algorithms that keep kids hooked:

The surgeon general similarly addressed addictive algorithms, explaining pitting adolescents against Big Tech is “just not a fair fight.” He told CNN, “You have some of the best designers and product developers in the world who have designed these products to make sure people are maximizing the amount of time they spend on these platforms. And if we tell a child, use the force of your willpower to control how much time you’re spending, you’re pitting a child against the world’s greatest product designers.”

 

It’s up to parents, as it always has been, to monitor the content of popular media and decide whether their children and teenagers are old enough and mature enough to consume it. However, parents should also be aware that with access to the internet and the wide variety of social media platforms at our kids’ fingertips, complying when the decision is “no” might be a bit difficult for teenagers.

source https://www.thepediablog.com/2023/02/07/is-13-too-young-for-social-media/