How young is too young to use social media? - Alina

 Social media is something most people in the world use. Social media can be a fun way of communicating with people and can be something to turn to when you are bored. There are many wonderful things about the world of social media. There are also some scary things about social media, like scammers, hackers, etc, which young children shouldn’t have to experience at such a young age. In my opinion, social media should allow people from ages 14 up to have social media, but if you are younger than 16, there should be some safety features so that social media can be more safe for younger people. 

Typically, the age restriction for using social media is 13 years old. But people younger can easily work their way around this restriction. According to Shepherd's Academy, “24% of teens are online constantly. Maybe if social media access came later, this number could be reduced…” If social media restrictions were bumped up to 14 years of age and older, younger children wouldn’t be addicted to social media before they’re even in their teens. Social media sites should also have a way to make sure you are actually 14 years or older, to prevent people younger to not be able to try and work their way around this restriction. 

In California, a teenager named Brooke got an iPhone for her 12th birthday. Shortly after, Brooke became obsessed with social media. "It was always about refreshing my feed and I'd stay up until like 4:30 in the morning," Brooke said. "It was my heart. I couldn't put it down … It felt like a part of me." Eventually, this led to her acting out in front of her parents. When her parents tried to restrict access to her phone, she would find other people’s phones to use instead. This social media addiction eventually led to alcohol consumption, etc. In the article, Brooke says that "I think I just got to a point where I kept getting hurt...I kept doing things that I knew didn't make me happy, but I just continued to do it because I had nothing else to do." We can see that social media had a bad influence on Brooke’s life. It caused her to make bad decisions and have a poor sleep schedule. Social media has its pros and cons, and sometimes if you’re too young, there are many bad things you can accidentally do on social media that will stick with you till you’re an adult. 

We can see how negatively social media affected Brooke’s life, and she was just 12 years old. In the article, it also says “At one point, when Brooke was 13 years old, police showed up at the family's home to inform them that she was involved in a blackmail attempt..” She was just 13, and social media caused her to become involved in a blackmail attempt. If social media’s age restriction was bumped up, maybe Brooke’s life would’ve been better. If social media had safety features and restrictions for users less than 16 years of age, maybe Brooke wouldn’t have started alcohol consumption and blackmail attempts. Social media can have really bad influences on teenagers who are young, as we can see in Brooke’s story. Another example about how young children and teens are negatively influenced by social media is the amount of sleep they get. 

In another PBS article, it says that teenagers who used their cellphones were “sleep-deprived”. “...The majority, 51 percent [of teens], slept less than seven hours on most nights by 2015.” Sleep is essential for children and teens to grow, and getting less sleep because of social media is not a good thing. I think that social media should have time limits so that teens can have a healthy sleep schedule and not loose the sleep that they need.

In my opinion, social media should have more safety features and restrictions. In the previous example, if social media made a sort of time limit for teens younger than 18, then teenagers like Brooke would not be so obsessed over social media.