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Five Social Media Stats Every Parent Should Know!
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- Published: Thursday, 21 January 2016 15:00
21% of teens say they feel worse about their own lives after seeing what friends post on social media. This is just one of the many stats that have been published recently about teens and social media. Fear of missing out is one of the factors to feeling this way, but also, seeing someone else's post get so much attention when anything they post barely gets a single like or comment, can lead to anxiety and depression.
24% of teenagers admit to being online almost constantly. Now some of these teenagers may be from the pool of 21% who answered the above question about being online constantly. However, it should be clear that if your teenager is constantly checking their 'News Feed', that they will find it hard to decipher between reality and what they see on social media. This makes it difficult for them to realize that their friends’ social media posts are quite likely to 'hyped-up' and 'fabricated' to gain such attention.
53% of those surveyed got their first device at just six years old! That's right - the average age for when a child gets their first mobile device is just six! However, some other studies have show that some children are using devices at a much younger age.
So considering this, along with other statistics that a high percentage of the overall content on the Internet is 'adult content', it is imperative that any parent should ensure they have the correct monitoring and filtering software, such as Protecteon, before introducing their child to the Internet.
8% have met a romantic partner online. Surprisingly, the survey showed that Facebook is the most common social network that teens have used to meet a romantic partner! While this platform is not a dating website, it is probably a less-secure place to meet a romantic partner than a dating website, due to how easy it is to create a fake profile and a fake persona. Any parent considering letting their teen have any social media account (the minimum age is 13 for most) should ensure all the privacy settings are set to 'private' or 'friends only', and also have a conversation with them on the dangers of social media and how to stay safe.
A good guide on what advice to give and how to protect your child on social media can be found here.
Bullying and mental health were the top concern for teenagers! 58% of girls aged 13 and over believed mental health was a serious concern, while more than a third (37%) said they were worried about cyberbullying. These teenage girls felt they were misunderstood, saying that they felt their parents worried more about drug and alcohol use than mental illness from online pressures. 62% said they knew a girl their age who had experienced a mental health problem.
Comments intended to be funny can often be misinterpreted online. Whereas if they were said face to face, they could be acceptable because facial expressions, body language, tone of voice and context would help to ensure the reciever that the comments were taken the right way. However, this is not the case online and many children feel bullied as a result of such online 'mocking'.
Advice on how to deal with CyberBullying can be found here.
[Stats from Pew Research and Young Minds]
REMEMBER: Mentoring is just as important as monitoring. Therefore, you could re-assure your teenager that you also have friends on social media whose posts attract lots of 'likes' and 'comments' (as everyone does!) However, this just means that these people are less likely to be as great in the real world, because they constantly live their lives online!
Protecteon helps you keep an eye on your child/teen's Internet activity, which can help identify the signs that something might be wrong at an early stage, allowing you to have a discussion with them and keep them firmly grounded in the 'real' world!
