Social media can negatively affect kids by distracting them, disrupting their sleep, and exposing them to bullying, rumour spreading, and peer pressure.
Most social media accounts require users to be at least 13 years old before they can create an account, and in some jurisdictions, this age limit may be higher.
Below is 10 Reasons why your baby shouldn’t have a social media account.
Lost connections and attachments: Screen overuse with gaming and social media easily cause a shift from healthy parent attachments to unstable attachments. Every minute they are on social media, they aren’t attaching to you and other essential people in their lives.
Miss out on other experiences and activities: Children have almost no concept of time, and may spend hours browsing and surfing the web. Their devices are removing them from memory-making activities. These family-building activities are crucial for building strong emotional foundations.
Read Also: 10 Reasons Why Your Baby Should Have A Social Media Account
Depression: Maintaining social media accounts causes them to focus on themselves and compare themselves to others. Unhealthy behaviours during the most critical identity defining years of their lives.
Bad Influences: When your child is exposed to continuous status updates, photos, and YouTube videos that promote things that go against your values. Children would often copy what they see.
Their brains aren’t fully developed: Your child’s brain is not fully developed until mid 20s. No matter how much you tell your child, their brain is impulsive and they often live in the moment.
Boredom: The low-effort, high-reward activity of pings, updates, notifications, likes and comments kill your child’s imagination and creativity.
Law breaking: If you allow your child to have a social networking site when they are underage, that law can no longer protect your child since your child’s personal information has been authorised to float around on unsecured websites.
Distraction: Homework and family gatherings will normally get pushed to the side and they would rather use social media. They will also be capable in sneaking phones into their classrooms and mess around instead of paying attention.
Read Also: 7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Bring Your Relationship Drama To Social Media
Mature content: Kids or adults can share things that just aren’t good for little eyes to see. Even the ads on social media nowadays can be enough to be shocking.
Bullying: Social media presents a huge target for bullying. If you don’t want your child exposed to bullies, or watching others be bullied, avoid letting them on social media.
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