What do you think about Social Media for Kids, Pre-Teens and Teenagers?

As Parents, we are all worried about how our young kids are dealing with their daily life outside home. But do you think it is only “outside” home? Social Media has opened the doors to get into our homes, even without permission from Dad or Mum (you and me), right? So today I would like to think louder about what are the Pro and Cons of Social Media for our Kids and see if you agree with me or not OR if you have any other point of view that you would like to share and maybe myself or any of our friend could use.

Here is what I think about the “Pros” of Social Media for our kids:

1. Connect with others: while I am old school and prefer to meet new people face to face, nowadays for teenagers and pre-teens, it could help to connect or bond with friends and family members via social media;
2. Hobbies and Learnings: our kids could use social media to follow their hobbies/interests or have new ones and at the same time learning what they already know;
3. Identity: social media could help your kids to connect with online groups that share same cultural background, preferences and ideas

Now here are the “Cons” or what I could call “risks”, but let’s not generalize and think that this could happen to any of our kids:

1. Being exposed to inappropriate contents: aggressive, violent or sexual images that could create trauma or have a psychological impact;
2. Cyberbullying: whether on purpose or not, teens could hurt each other with making aggressive or hurting comments repeatedly online. Like I said I am old school and when I was a teenager (40 years ago🤔…) of course there was bullying, but at least you know who and why they were doing what they were doing. Now, people could be physically in the other side of the world and still hurting you for not reason….
3.   Personal info leakage: this could happen not only to teens but to anyone. Teens might be target not only to steal personal info, but also incentive consumption or buying things that they might not need to…
4. Pressure to follow up: becoming an obsession to follow their idols or “influencers” just for the sake to give a “like”. Then how they could keep up with their personal lives if they want to live their idols’ life?

I could keep listing up the “Cons or potential risks” for our teens, but I want to be objective and would like to hear your thoughts. Maybe I could learn how to deal better with all the concerns and anxieties that social media are creating for an old fashion/old school like me….😉 Please let me know what you think about it.