Running head: CHILDREN AFFECTED BY SOCIAL MEDIA 1

Children Affected by Social Media

Introduction

Esmeralda Cordero

The University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract

This literature review essay explores eleven published scholarly articles that report on

children affected by social media. Also, there is an offline (non-internet) primary research which

also reports how children are affected by social media. In addition, a primary research was

conducted by the author of this essay making an appointment at four different elementary

schools in El Paso, Northeast which helped her get accurate information on how kids get affected

by social media. The following review of literature will answer, how does elementary schools in

El Paso northeast cope with children using social media, how can social media physically and

mentally affect elementary children and How can children under thirteen be prevented to not use

social media in the United States, and how can the guardians of these children help? Various

scholarly articles were analyzed to discover that social media can have different negative effects

if children use it before thirteen.

Keywords: Social Media, Elementary, Children, Kids, Society

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Children Affected by Social Media

Introduction

In today’s society, children are starting to use social media and social networking sites

and apps which can affect them negatively. There are positive and negative effects when kidsuse

social media websites or apps. As said by Laura Gray whom works for the educational

psychology service, defined that “any website which provides the opportunity for social

interaction is considered a social networking site”. (Gray, 2018) Broughton whom is a professor

of Pediatrics, stated “Children are spending more and more time on the Internet. Safety is the

biggest concern many parents have as their children navigate cyberspace.”(Broughton, 2005).

What Broughton tried to say with this phrase, was that children now spend more time on the

internet than ever before, which can be a concern to many parents when it comes to thinking over

the negative effects this can make on the children. The reason why you should care about this

issue of kids using social media, is because youngsters whom are innocent small persons can get

affected very strongly and damagingly and grow up with these impacts they catch, can affect not

only them but the world. This topic is very important for individuals to have in mind and you

should be conscious of how children do actually get negatively affected and how to help them

avoid or reduce using social media for their personal physical and psychological good. Some

kids violate the law in which there are specific ages required for someone to be able to use social

media apps or sites. There are Inappropriate sites which include graphic images that may appear

with no information required for someone to see which can highly impact children

psychologically. Spending time on social networking sites decreases the time children spend

doing physical activities which can poorly affect their physical state. Moreover, communicating

on screen devices with friends or strangers can decrease the comfort of socializing in person for
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kids. Using social media sites or apps does increase the danger of kids being spoken by online

predators, going through cyberbullying, sex-talking, seeing graphic or pornographic

iconography, and many other things which children should not endure at such a young age. This

Literature review will focus on El Paso, Texas and how children in this state are affected by

social media/social networking sites and apps. To accomplish this task, there will be answers to

three questions with scholarly articles being analyzed and a primary research being done to

acquire accurate information on why children are affected by social media sites and apps. To

accomplish this task, this essay will answer the following questions which are,

1. How does elementary schools in El Paso Northeast, cope with children using social

media?

2. How can social media physically and mentally affect elementary children?

3. How can children under thirteen be prevented to not use social media in the United

States, and how can the guardians of these children help?

These questions will narrow the purpose of how social media affects children. This

literature review will provide academic information regarding children whom use social media

and how they get affected by these social networking tools.

How does elementary schools in El Paso Northeast, cope with children using Social Media?

Elementary schools in El Paso, Northeast side, have several methods to cope with

children whom use social media sites or apps. Some primary research which has been conducted

to catch accurate information on what it is that elementary schools in El Paso Northeast, do to

deal with children using social media has been done by Esmeralda Cordero on 2018. Esmeralda

had gone to four Elementary schools in the Northeast side and gathered information by

conducting surveys to teachers. Esmeralda went to Crosby Elementary school, Whitaker

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Elementary School, Moye Elementary school, and Staton elementary school to get the

information accurate she wanted. In every school she spoke to three different teachers which in

total finished talking with twelve teachers in different places from Northeast, El Paso. When she

went to these schools something these schools altogether had in common was that it is not

permitted for students to use any type of social media sites nor apps during school hours. Also,

something the teachers in these four schools all had in common as well is that they are always

constantly making sure that electronics are out only when they ask which this is a way

Elementary schools cope with children using social media sites or apps. In addition, there was

another common thing in these schools which is that parent guardians of the children in these

schools are welcome to come and talk with the teachers if they have any questions or want any

advice as well. As said by Susan Barnes whom is a journalist, “there are solutions which have

been made to protect privacy online social media sites approached by social solutions, technical

solutions, and legal solutions in which parents, schools, and social networking sites are working

on.”(Barnes, 2006). By this specific quotation, it can be seen that elementary schools, and

parents of these kids want to find solutions in how to protect these children but also teachers

want to protect their students as well. Additionally, Gween and Kathleen whom both are

pediatricians said that it was up to educators and parents to protect kids from harmful content on

Internet and social media also to check if it is useful and convenient for children

(Gween,Kathleen, 2018). This statement is absolutely accurate because guardians and educators

being the adults should be the ones protecting these children from harmful content in social

networking sites.

As said in the Exploring how and why young people use social networking sites article by

Laura whom includes statistics, introduced the SNS which means social networking sites, and
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78% reported that they felt that parents and teachers should be worried about this issue. (Gray,

2018). From this piece of information from the article it can be proven that schools need to be

worried about this social media issue towards kids. Leslie and Rianka whom both have earned a

PhD, stated “Schools and school districts, in the United States, are grappling how to manage and

monitor social media use by their students, during and after school, to prevent threats, violence,

and cyberbullying. (Regan L., Singh, R, 2016). This has been a good proof to show what the

schools in the United States do to cope with the issue of children using social media by which

they demonstrate how the Schools care about their students. Akdag and Cingi whom are faculty

of communication, Said “We should teach how to use computer games in a beneficial way rather

than just restricting them” (Akdag and Cingi, 2014). These faculty of communication are trying

to persuade educators to teach children how to properly use social media sites or apps, In this

case games which can be considered social media due to some having the ability to talk to

strangers around the world. Knowing the Physical and Mental effects children can achieve from

social networking sites and apps is important as in continuation it would be proven.

How can social media physically and psychologically affect children in the United States?

Social media sites and apps can physically and mentally affect children in the United

States when utilizing social media in an incorrectly manner. In the primary research made by

Esmeralda Cordero the author of this essay, she found that 10 out of 12 teachers have said

children have been less physical active since technology and social media came to them. In

addition, the younger generation tend to decrease physical activities when using social media

causing harm to their physical state. As argued by Gwenn and Kathleen, some of the risk of

youth using social media are, cyberbullying, online harassment, sexting, Facebook depression,

improper use of technology, and sharing too much information (Gween, Kathleen, 2018).As
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explained by Gween, these risk youth have can bring them to go through psychological outcomes

including depression, anxiety, severe isolation, and tragically suicide. Furthermore, in an article

Laura had mentioned statistics in which 49% reported arguments online had affected their

friendships or relationships offline, (Gray, 2018).This can bring psychological effects into people

do to making them feel mentally depressed. Additionally, In an article by Leslie and Rianka they

argued “daily reports for the frequency and severity posts, which are categorized for bullying,

cyberbullying, despair, hate, harm, crime, vandalism, substance abuse, and traumacy” (Regan,

Singh, 2016). These all were examples of awful effects children can experience if using social

media and all these lead to psychological negative effects. In addition, “children can encounter

so many harmful content and challenges for their cognitive and psychological well-being, from

sexuality to terrorism, addiction, pirating, gambling and fraudulence as Akdag and Cing have

argued (Akdag, Cingi, 2014). All of these harmful content available for kids to see can affect

them psychologically because even death iconography can be seen and other harmful things.

Susan Barnes, has argued “there have been a number of reports of sexual predators locating

victims through social networking sites.” (Barnes, 2016). This argument by Susan is very

important because there has been cases where parents never see their children again do to online

predators kidnapping with the social media help. Furthermore, Daniel D. Broughton whom is the

Director at National center for Missing & exploited children, has argued “child molesters are

contacting and luring children and teens with inappropriate intentions where it is found that one

in five children and adolescents have been solicited over the internet.”(Broughton, 2005). From

this peace of an article it is important to say that there is unfortunately cruel people whom due in

the real world contact children by pretending being someone else and convincing them to

encounter or simply online harassing them which is a big problem and can physiologically affect
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not only children but parents after losing their kids. Spending time on social media which most

kids do at least one hour a day reduces the physical activity engagement they should get for a

healthy system. From all of these negative effects children go through, there are in fact some

methods to prevent kids from going through these and parent guardians can help as discussed

below.

How can children under thirteen be prevented to not use social media in the United

States, and how can the guardians of these children help?

Children under thirteen can be prevented to not use social media and Parents or guardians

of these kids can help. As said by Gween and Kathleen “Many parents are aware that 13 years is

the minimum age for most social media sites”. Also Gween and Kathleen mentioned, “It is

important that parents evaluate the sites on which their child wishes to participate to be sure that

the site is appropriate for the child’s age.” (Gween, Kathleen, 2018). In these two quotes it is

stating the importance for parents to know there is age registrations for children to be able to use

social media and actually get involved on what kids do to prevent horrific results. The way

Parents can help their children as stated by Laura Gray is “Make a family plan for use of

technology, Meet regularly to talk about anything new with social media. Ask your children how

they are feeling about their social lives. Plan checks or updates to privacy settings, types of

postings and content in online profiles. Set time limits for use of the Internet or cell phones.

Insist on a balance with your children's activities.(Gray, 2018). This is a very great sentence and

advise because as parents set time limits which kids should follow, can help children not only go

outside and do physical activities but also help them reduce social media usage which can

decrease the vocal communication experience with friends and family. Furthermore, As said by

Susan, “Often parents have no clue about the information teens are publicly revealing” which I
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believe is an important sentence because it is absolutely true that some parents are not aware of

where their children are navigating online.(Barnes, 2016) Going back to the primary research

conducted by Esmeralda she has asked teachers if they thought parents were aware of the social

sites kids use, which 10 out of the 12 teachers she interviewed, said they knew for a fact that

parents do know their children use apps and social sites but they might not know that their

children share private information unintentionally which can put them in danger. Parents also

need to be educated about how to teach their children to be responsible Internet citizens. Akdag

and Cingi have argued “Among the results of this research, is the fact that society does not have

sufficient knowledge about the dangers of Internet” (Akdag, Cingi, 2014). In this sentence it is

highly important because it is proven that many people do not know some dangers they can face

which parents can help them by explaining to them the dangers. As said by Peter and Suzana

“The extent to which parents have difficulties with mediating children’s media use may vary

with situational characteristics of the family.” (Peter, Suzanna, 2018) In this sentence these

authors explain that every family is different therefore every children grows up with different

points of view. As Daniel has stated “Parents need to learn about computers, understanding that

their children often know more about them than they do” (Broughton, 2005) In this peace of

article it is important to have in mind that generation has changed now children in schools use

technology and carry it when back then parents did not and this leads to children having better

understanding of how to use it. As said by Alex Gould in 2018 whom is a licensed social worker

with Provident, a mental health provider has said that she encourages parents and educators to

understand that social media is not going anywhere so taking it away is never the answer or the

kids will begin to have secret accounts. Therefore, Alex Gould encourages parents and educators

to give children insight on consequences of broadcasting personal information. Also, Alex Gould
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gives to understand that parents and educators can talk to children about “1. How to maintain

their privacy and protect themselves, 2. How to be respectful of others, and 3. Develop a contract

that outlines what both parent and child are comfortable with.” The provident includes a social

media contract as seen in figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Social Media Contract (Provident, 2018)

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Conclusion

In conclusion, the main points of this literature review where Children using social

media, how they can be physically and psychologically affected and how guardians and

educators can help with this issue. This issue is very important because children whom are using

social networking sites can highly be negatively affected by this if they do not use it

appropriately with no violations being committed. This literature report has been written using

scholarly articles and a primary research by the author of this essay Esmeralda Cordero in 2018.

For a better knowledge of how children can get negatively affected by social media it could be a

good task to do some primary research on Social media experts in El Paso, Texas. To be added,

not everything in social media is negative but kids just have to learn how to appropriately use it,

and without violating any laws which they need to be honest with what their age is because

social media sites have age restrictions for important reasons.

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References

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b4c31a48da8f8ebbd53fdd4b1b&site=eds-live&scope=site

2. Barnes, S. (2006). A privacy paradox: Social networking in the United States, First

Monday, 11(9). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_9/barnes/index.html

3. Broughton, D. (2005). Keeping kid’s safe in cyberspace. American academy of

pediatrics, 26(8). Retrieved from http://www.aappublications.org/content/26/8/11

4. Cordero, E. (2018). Appointment at four elementary schools in El Paso Northeast, student

at The University of Texas at El Paso.

5. Gould, A. (2018, October 24). Good and bad of kids and social media [Video File].

Retrieved from https://fox2now.com/2018/10/24/good-and-bad-of-kids-and-social-media/

6. Gray, L. (2018). Exploring How and Why Young People Use Social Networking Sites.

Educational Psychology in Practice, 34(2), 175–194. Retrieved from http://0-

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7. Gween S., & Kathleen C. (2018). The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents,

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Provident.