Social media can provide valuable opportunities for children to connect with friends, express themselves creatively, and access educational resources. Platforms that encourage collaborative projects, skill-sharing, and positive community engagement can foster confidence, communication skills, and digital literacy. Additionally, children can learn to navigate online interactions and develop critical thinking skills when guided appropriately.

Despite these benefits, social media also presents significant risks for young users. Exposure to cyberbullying, inappropriate content, or harmful online challenges can affect mental health and emotional well-being. Features such as auto-play videos, comment sections, and friend suggestions can encourage excessive screen time, reduce attention spans, or expose children to unsafe interactions. Moreover, personal information shared on these platforms can be exploited if privacy settings are not properly managed.

Benefits of social media for pre-teens and teenagers

Pre-teens and teenagers use social media to have fun, learn new things, explore identity, develop family relationships, connect with friends, and get support. It’s an extension of their offline and face-to-face interactions.

Your child can get many benefits from using social media:

• Social life and relationships – your child might use social media to make friends and bond with family members. For teenagers, especially, social media is a key way to connect with others.
• Learning – your child can use social media to better understand, extend, or share what they’re learning at school, either informally or in formal school settings.
• Hobbies and interests – your child can use social media to follow their interests and learn new ones. For example, they might enjoy commenting on and sharing content about games, TV series, music, and so on.
• Creativity – your child can be creative with profile pages, images, video, and game modifications.
• Identity – social media can connect your child to online groups that support teenagers with disability or medical conditions, LGBTIQ+ teenagers, or teenagers from their own cultural background.
• Mental health and wellbeing – connecting with extended family and friends and taking part in local and global online groups can give your child a sense of belonging.

Risks of social media for pre-teens and teenagers

Social media can pose risks:

• Exposure to inappropriate or upsetting content – your child might see mean, aggressive, violent, or sexual comments or images.
• Risky behaviour – your child might upload embarrassing or provocative photos or videos of themselves or others, or share personal information with strangers.
• Cyberbullying – someone might use digital technology to deliberately and repeatedly upset, frighten, threaten, or hurt your child online.
• Targeted advertising – advertisers might use your child’s personal information to influence the advertisements your child sees and their desire to buy things.
• Data breaches – your child’s data might be sold on to organisations they don’t know about.
• Pressure to engage – your child might feel pressure to maintain a ‘streak’ or retain followers, and stressed if they can’t keep it up.

Parents and educators play a crucial role in guiding children through social media. Monitoring activity, setting boundaries, and fostering open communication about online experiences can help children recognize and avoid risks. Teaching children to critically evaluate content, protect personal information, and practice responsible digital behavior empowers them to make safer choices online.

Here are ideas for guidelines that you could discuss and negotiate with your child.

Social media basics

• When can your child use social media, and how long can your child spend on social media?
• Can your child use social media during homework time, family meals, and so on?
• Where can your child use social media – for example, only in family areas of the house, not bedrooms?

Posts and comments

• Think before posting. For example, you could encourage your child to think about why they want to post something and what reactions they might get.
• Don’t upload or share inappropriate messages, images, or videos.
• Show 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.
• Seek consent before posting images of others.

Privacy protection

• Don’t share personal information like location and date of birth – for example, by giving this information to strangers online, posting photos with identifying information, doing online quizzes, and so on.
• Don’t add personal details like phone numbers or date of birth to private profiles.
• Regularly check privacy and location settings on apps and devices.
• Keep passwords and login details private, and don’t share these with friends.
• Don’t use social media or other online accounts on public wi-fi.
• Log out of all accounts after using public computers.

Social media offers children opportunities to connect with peers, express creativity, and access educational content, but it also exposes them to risks such as cyberbullying, inappropriate content, and privacy concerns. Features like auto-play videos, friend suggestions, and comment sections can increase screen time and influence attention and behavior. Parents, educators, and platform developers all play a critical role in creating safer digital spaces by setting boundaries, teaching responsible online habits, and implementing child-friendly features. With proper guidance and safeguards, social media can be a positive and enriching part of a child’s digital experience.

Conclusion:

Social media is an unavoidable part of modern childhood, offering both opportunities and risks. By understanding the potential dangers, promoting digital literacy, and establishing safe boundaries, parents and educators can help children navigate these platforms responsibly. Combined with thoughtful design and moderation by developers, social media can become a space where children safely explore, connect, and grow in the digital world.

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