The Truth About Teens and Social Media

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Social media is a term for the online platforms that people use to connect with others, share media content, and form social networks, some the most popular platforms include:
Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, Skype, YouTube, Viber, and Snapchat. Online multiplayer games, like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Clash of Clans and The Sims are also becoming important social media spaces for young people, where they connect with other gamers and chat while playing. Gaming chat sites are also popular ways for children and teenagers to connect with others who share their particular gaming interests.
Using social media means uploading and sharing content. This includes:
  • creating online profiles
  • posting comments or chatting
  • uploading photos and videos
  • sharing links
  • tagging photos and content
  • creating and sharing game modifications
  • remixing or changing existing content and sharing it.
What your child gets from social media
Social media is a vital aspect of teenagers’ and children’s social and creative lives. They use social media to have fun, make and maintain friendships, share interests, explore identities and develop relationships with family. It’s an extension of their offline and face-to-face interactions.
Social media can connect children and teenagers to online global communities based on shared interests. These might be support networks – for example, for young people with disability or medical conditions, teenagers who are same-sex attracted, or children from particular cultural backgrounds. Or they might be sites for commenting on and sharing content about particular interests like games, TV series, music or hobbies.
Your child can get many other benefits from using social media:
  • Digital media literacy: exploring and experimenting on social media can help your child build the knowledge and skills she needs to enjoy online activities and avoid online risks.
  • Collaborative learning: your child can use social media to share educational content, either informally or in formal school settings.
  • Creativity: your child can be creative with profile pages, photos and video, and modifications for games.
  • Mental health and wellbeing: connecting with extended family and friends and taking part in local and global online communities can give your child a sense of connection and belonging.
Risks of social media
Social media sites can also pose risks. For your child, these risks include:
  • being exposed to inappropriate or upsetting content like mean, aggressive, violent or sexual comments or images
  • uploading inappropriate content like embarrassing or provocative photos or videos of himself or others
  • sharing personal information with strangers – for example, phone numbers, date of birth or location
  • cyberbullying
  • exposure to too much targeted advertising and marketing
  • data breaches, like having his data sold on to other organisations.
Navigating the risks of social media
Talking about social media use is the best way to protect your child and ensure her internet safety. Talking gives you the opportunity to help your child:
  • work out how she wants to behave and be treated by other people online
  • understand the risks involved in using social media – for example, risks like being tagged in an embarrassing photo taken at a party
  • understand the dangers involved in sharing content and personal information – this includes not only content that your child shares but also images of your child that other people share, or posts and images that others tag your child to
  • learn how to navigate the risks – for example, if your child posts an identifiable image of herself, she can reduce risk by not including any other personal information
  • learn what to do if people ask for personal details, are mean or abusive online, post embarrassing photos of her, or share information that links back to her
  • manage her own digital footprint – for example, you could talk about what your child would like her digital footprint to say about her now and in the future.

Finding out more about social media

Social media platforms and functionality are always changing so it’s a good idea to keep up to date with the social media your child uses. You could ask your child what platforms are popular and which ones he likes. You could also get your child to show you how they work.
You could consider checking whether your child’s social media choices are appropriate for her age. Some social media platforms have age restrictions. For example, to have a Facebook or Instagram account your child needs to be 13 years old.
But it’s often hard to enforce age restrictions on social media because it’s easy to lie about your age online. Also, many platforms don’t have specific age limits. Others, like online multiplayer game environments, let you interact with people of all ages all over the world.
Some social media platforms now have versions for children, like YouTube Kids and Messenger Kids, which have different safety settings, require more parental involvement, and feature age-appropriate content. These platforms can help your child learn how to navigate social media.

What about banning social media?

Social media is becoming increasingly embedded in apps, games, websites and even learning environments, so it’s hard to ban. And it usually doesn’t work to ban or block social media access anyway, even for younger children. It’s not a good way of teaching your child how to navigate social media risks and behave respectfully on social media.
If you ban social media, your child might be more tempted to check it out when he’s away from home. Your child’s internet access away from home can be hard to control.

Setting up social media guidelines
Some written guidelines about social media can help your child use social media responsibly, respectfully and safely. This agreement could be part of a family media plan. If these guidelines include your social media use as well as your child’s, you can be a positive role model.
Here are some things your guidelines could include.

Using social media 

This might cover basics like:
  • when it’s OK to use social media and how long your child can spend on social media
  • whether it’s OK to use social media during homework time, family meals and so on
  • where it’s OK to use social media – for example, only in family areas of the house, not bedrooms.

Posting content and comments

It’s important for your child to agree to:
  • not uploading or sharing inappropriate messages, images and video or herself or others
  • being cautious about the information that she shares
  • being a responsible digital citizen by showing respect in posts and when sharing content – for example, if it’s not OK to say or do something face to face, it’s not OK online.

Protecting privacy

There’s been a lot of concern about how large social media platforms like Facebook handle users’ data. It’s a good idea to go through privacy guidelines and settings with your child and make shared decisions about the platforms and privacy settings your child uses.
Your child can protect his privacy by agreeing to:
  • not share personal information like phone numbers, location and date of birth with strangers online, or with people he doesn’t know personally
  • not add personal details like phone numbers or date of birth to private profiles
  • regularly check privacy and location settings, especially on mobile phones
  • keep passwords and log-in details private and not share these with friends
  • log out after using public computers
  • disable features like posting to multiple social media sites at once.

Staying safe on social media

Safety essentials for your child include:
  • blocking and reporting people she doesn’t know or who post upsetting comments or content
  • not clicking on pop-ups. Some pop-ups that seem safe can lead to pornography sites or ask for personal or financial information
  • accepting friend requests only from people your child knows to be who they say they are
  • taking a screenshot and talking to a trusted adult about things she sees or experiences online that upset her.


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