High Schoolers: think about how young you were when you first got social media. Think about how social media has affected your mental health.

Even though almost every social media site has a requirement of being at least 13 years old, some parents give their kids permission to lie about their age when they sign up. When social media sites have an age requirement, parents should really do a better job following the rules because if they look at the many studies of teenagers who have social media that are more likely to be depressed and suicidal, according to a Fortune article. But at the same time, social media sites also need to do a better job policing everything.

I got Instagram and Facebook when I was 13 years old. At the time, social media I think wasn’t as bad as it is today. When I first got it, I didn’t get cyberbullied or treated horribly because of what I posted. Today that isn’t the case. Today kids are being bullied because they don’t look their best or because they don’t post at all.

With most types of social media, there isn’t an age limit on anything after joining the app. You can see anything and everything – that the app allows of course. There are warnings on some videos and pictures if they are hard to watch but if you’re young on the app there is nothing that stops you from watching the video that may not be appropriate for all ages. Instagram should monitor the younger kids who sign up as 13 years old and not let the younger kids see some of the more harsh videos. Instagram should block the harsher videos for the younger kids on there and when they turn 15, they should have access to everything.

Social media has also been discovered as a really easy place to cyberbully. A lot of kids today are too antisocial to actually bully someone to their face but now they can do it on these social media sites. Cyberbullying is a huge cause of mental health issues according to the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. Cyberbullying causes kids to have less confidence which also brings up depression rates. Social media sites are cracking down on cyberbullying but they can’t get to all of the bullyings sometimes. Adults should really consider their child’s mental maturity before letting their kids on any/all social media.

Social Media is an amazing technological advancement for everyone and allows people from all over the world to communicate instantly with basically anyone they want. But this can also be very dangerous because sometimes we don’t always know who we are talking to. They could say they are one person but really be another. You never know who the creeps are out there really are.

Work cited:

Morris, Chris. “Teens Who Spend More Time on Social Media Have Increased Depression.” Fortune, Fortune, 15 July 2019, fortune.com/2019/07/15/social-media-teen-depression/.

Garett, Renee, et al. “Associations between Social Media and Cyberbullying: a Review of the Literature.” MHealth, AME Publishing Company, 19 Dec. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5344141/.