Growing Use of Social Media Platforms Among Young People
Discusss about the effect of the digital technologies among the young people and children.
The report helps in analysis of the effect of the digital technologies among the young people and children. The ethical and methodological challenges have to be identified on analysis of the effect of the usage of the digital technologies by the children or the entire young generation. Furthermore, the focus has to be kept on a specific age group that will help in analysing the different kind of legal restrictions that has to be adopted to this kind of children or the young people. The analysis of the kind of platforms or technologies has to be identified that will be discussed in the respective case study.
In the present scenario, the social media networks and sites are developing at a great and huge pace and this is being used by different individuals in various parts of the world as well. Furthermore, it has been noticed that the usage of the social media or the digital technologies that includes the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram along with WhatsApp has become very popular among the young generation and there are different individuals who do not have control on themselves and they are being addicted to social media as well.
Furthermore, it has been noticed that in many colleges along with universities, the students are carrying their cell phones and they are surfing Facebook along with other social networking sites and not attending the class. Newman, (2017) has commented that the high usage of internet and digital technologies are linked with high amount of risks as well. Furthermore, Lamberton & Stephen, (2016) has commented that nearly two third of the students used social media networking sites while completing their homework and in class they could not able to answer the simple questions and this led to huge negative marking in their different subjects as well.
The main age group that has been focused in the particular report is that majority of the Americans uses the social media networking sites and it has been seen that more than 68% of the young generation who are form the age group of 10-15 years uses the maximum social networking sites (Lamberton & Stephen, 2016). Furthermore, it has been noticed that more than 55% of the young generation has used Facebook and YouTube and these two networking sites have dominated the landscape.
Legal Restrictions for Children and Young People Using Social Media Platforms
On the other hand, the children between the age of 18-24 uses the Snapchat and there have been different reports that these children visit the platform multiple times in a day and they are being very much addicted towards the same as well. Similarly, more than 71% of the Americans in the respective age group use Instagram and there are close to 45% of the children uses Twitter as well. In the year 2016, it was a major concern for the Americans that Facebook is the major concern and more than 59% of the young generations uses such platforms and networking sites on a daily basis as well.
There are different kind of legal restrictions or policies that has to be adopted by the government or the other higher officials for the Children or Young generation in order to limit the usage of the different social networking sites (Gerbaudo & Treré,2015). It has been noticed that the minimum age for opening or creating Facebook account or account on Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest is 13. Furthermore, the age of the children requires to be 17 while opening accounts on Tinder and Vine. On the other hand, YouTube requires to be 18 years old, however a 12-year-old child can create account on the basis of parent’s permission (Roth et al., 2016).
However, despite all these there are different kinds of growing number of children who are below the age of 12 and they are using the social network sites and this has caused major issues in the past as well. In such circumstances, there are different legal restrictions or the sections that are required to be followed or there will be huge trouble for the children as well as the police authority can take legal actions against them and this can be destructive for their future as well (Munar & Jacobsen, 2014).
The most important legal liabilities and obligations of social networking websites are Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Section 230 of Communications Decency Act. Both these sections are equally essential and important to be followed by the children who are below 12 years of age (Ngai, Tao & Moon, 2015). While surfing the internet by any such children below 12 years of age and there is no such permission granted from parents as well, in such circumstances there will be huge issues as the children can be arrested when there will be violation of the laws and this can lead to imprisonment of 2 years along with a fine of up to $200 as well.
Disadvantages of Social Media Use for Young People
The different social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tinder, Vine along with WhatsApp are the different kind of technologies or social platforms that are being considered in the respective case study (Sarker et al., 2015). Furthermore, it has been noticed that there are more than 59% of the young children or the young crowd who uses such websites along with YouTube and they uses it against the permission from their parents or anyone older. Furthermore, it has been noticed that the privacy rights are damaged as the young generation find it as fun and they do not follow the rules and regulations that are required to be followed and adhered by them (Scherman, Arriagada & Valenzuela, 2015).
There should be proper and accurate restrictions on the young generation or the children who uses the social media networks. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) that was passed in the year 1988 helps in analysing the protection of the children under age group 13 and this act helps in inquiring that all the operators of the different websites along with online services has to provide notice and obtain the permission from the parents of the children before collecting any such kind of personal information.
However, there has been different kind of instances wherein it has been noticed that the children falsify their ages and they open and create different social networking site accounts. In such circumstances, the protection that is being offered by the Act is not safe and the information is at risk as well (Greenwood, Perrin & Duggan, 2016). In America, it has been noticed that Facebook remains the most widely utilised platform of social media and this has hampered the entire education of the children and this has caused negative impact on them as well (Houston et al., 2015).
From the below diagram, it can be analysed that there are different kind of disadvantages of usage of social media and this has affected the entire life or career of the children as well. Furthermore, there have been different reports of suicides or other killing of individuals due to the different affairs or the kind of chats that are done by the individuals on such networking sites.
With the rise of the digital technologies, this has tried to transform the cultures of youth or the childhood of individuals. It can be analysed and identified that there are different advantages and disadvantages of usage of social media (Boulianne, 2015). It has been noticed that there are different kinds of educational learning gained by the children that are essential for their studies. However, on the other hand it has been noticed that the students are always on their mobile phones or MacBook to view their profile on Snapchat or Facebook (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014). From the previous section, it has been identified that the percentage of disadvantages of usage of social media has been more in comparison to the advantages and there should be different restrictions implemented on the same as well.
Positive and Negative Aspects of Social Media Use for Children and Young People
After analysis of the different implications on usage of social media, it can be analysed that there are both positive and negative aspects of usage of social media on the young generation. When I was a kid of 12 years, I was in my school days, I noticed that all my friends had different accounts on social media networking sites. I felt that I am only one who did not have such accounts and was excited to do the same as well. Furthermore, I opened account on Facebook secretly and my parents were not aware of the same as well. I tried to make many friends and posted my different pictures.
However, one fine morning, my mother came to know about the respective fact and the reaction was unexpectable. She did not scold me, although she made me understood that there is a specific age for everything and when I will be in my high school I can open account in social networking site, however being very careful of the same. On that respective day, I tried to understand that I was too young to get into all such stuffs and I deleted the account as well from Facebook.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that social media networks or the digital technologies has different kind of privacy regulations and rules that has to be followed by the children below 12 years of age and this will help them in maintaining the different rules effectively. Furthermore, it was noticed that there are merits and demerits of the social media networking sites on the children and this created huge impact on the children as well.
References
Boulianne, S. (2015). Social media use and participation: A meta-analysis of current research. Information, Communication & Society, 18(5), 524-538.
Gerbaudo, P., & Treré, E. (2015). In search of the ‘we’of social media activism: introduction to the special issue on social media and protest identities.
Greenwood, S., Perrin, A., & Duggan, M. (2016). Social media update 2016. Pew Research Center, 11, 83.
Houston, J. B., Hawthorne, J., Perreault, M. F., Park, E. H., Goldstein Hode, M., Halliwell, M. R., … & Griffith, S. A. (2015). Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning, response, and research. Disasters, 39(1), 1-22.
Lamberton, C., & Stephen, A. T. (2016). A thematic exploration of digital, social media, and mobile marketing: Research evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future inquiry. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 146-172.
Munar, A. M., & Jacobsen, J. K. S. (2014). Motivations for sharing tourism experiences through social media. Tourism management, 43, 46-54.
Newman, T. P. (2017). Tracking the release of IPCC AR5 on Twitter: Users, comments, and sources following the release of the Working Group I Summary for Policymakers. Public Understanding of Science, 26(7), 815-825.
Ngai, E. W., Tao, S. S., & Moon, K. K. (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs, and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), 33-44.
Roth, P. L., Bobko, P., Van Iddekinge, C. H., & Thatcher, J. B. (2016). Social media in employee-selection-related decisions: A research agenda for uncharted territory. Journal of Management, 42(1), 269-298.
Sarker, A., Ginn, R., Nikfarjam, A., O’Connor, K., Smith, K., Jayaraman, S., … & Gonzalez, G. (2015). Utilizing social media data for pharmacovigilance: a review. Journal of biomedical informatics, 54, 202-212.
Scherman, A., Arriagada, A., & Valenzuela, S. (2015). Student and environmental protests in Chile: The role of social media. Politics, 35(2), 151-171.
Tiago, M. T. P. M. B., & Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708
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