Is it a social disaster?

According to Dr.Richard Woolfson, child psychologist and Knowthenet spokesman: “As social media has removed the barriers between a young person’s public and private self, children can become vulnerable, and compulsive online sharing can lead to danger.” 
Children, how tiny they are in comparison with the vast world of social media! There are a lot of risks that they can go through when using it. Privacy is most prominently at risk. A study by Daily Mail suggests that children are most likely to post an image or video of themselves online for the first time at the age of 11. Youngsters often do not understand the risks of giving out too much information on the internet and they are rarely aware of the intentions of others.

Cyber bullying
Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online. One in four has experienced it more than once. Only one in 10 teens tells a parent if they have been a cyber bully victim,

The world of social media is vast with users of all ages, thus its content might not always fit children. So is parental control the answer?

We have all been children at some point in our lives, and being watched was never pleasant. Yet parents can do a lot to make the usage of social media healthier for their children without making them feel untrusted. You cannot leave children in a kids pool and ask them not to dive in. Parental guidance when it comes to picking which site is child-healthy is always a good idea.

Nowadays there are many services that help you limit the consumption of social media. Banning whatever is unsafe and unwanted is not a problem anymore.

Still parents cannot completely protect their children. After all, beyond the zone of comfort they have set, there is the outside world. There are the child’s friends, cousins and so on and there are other devices that parents have no control over.

Parents should raise awareness in a way that their child becomes confident and knowledgeable enough to reject inappropriate content.

Finally, parents should always let their children know that they are there to help. They should listen, and interact. Give reasons to why something is not okay, and why another is acceptable. Also, they should know that the age of under 15 is a sensitive age, and that normally these children at this age feel that their opinions are neglected. It is the parent’s job to let them know that how they feel is valid and that their opinion matters.

The writer is a media student at University of Sharjah

The International Government Communication Forum (IGCF), held in Sharjah, is an annual forum that shares global best practices in fields of government communication and aims to build a platform for better communication between governments and their citizens. This column is a collaborative effort with Gulf News featuring work by UAE-based students as part of that initiative.