Toddlers Don’t Need Twitter
Social media is no place for a twelve year old, and this is extremely true in our society. Social media misuse has the potential to wreck lives decades down the road, because people don’t make the connection that what was said a decade ago does not necessarily reflect the current character of the person who make a bad comment when he was twelve..
Abuse of social media, has lead to wrecked careers, suicide, and exposure to pedophiles, and a child is not equipped in any fashion to handle this. The internet is a dark place, and leaving a four-year to navigate the web without guidance can cause harm to your child.
The dangers of social media to toddlers and young kids is the reason why some groups are calling to stop Twitter and Facebook from marketing to these adolescents for profit.
Here are the reasons why they need to succeed…
Bullying
There is nothing so pure and potentially cruel as a child, and this fact is evident in the phenomenon of suicides due to cyber-stalking and bullying. It is bad enough that children have to deal with bullies at school with poor discipline from the aggressors’ teachers or parents, but now these enemies have a new medium through which they can stalk their victims: Twitter.
Social media accounts become the first front of attack against children who are just beginning to develop the necessary social skills needed to function as a person. Confidence is one of the most critical aspects of growth and nothing erodes it better than some bully attacking them on Facebook.
We need to teach these kids that social media isn’t everything. Keeping it away from them until these individuals can develop confidence and maturity is critical for avoiding the suicide deaths that such bullying has caused.
Dangerous Predators
Just like with TV, parental discretion may not be as stringent in regards to knowing the sites that adolescents are on. Social forums can be a paradise of access to children who don’t yet know what they are dealing with on the other side of the screen. A play-date schedule with a kid could be a ploy for kidnapping and assault. Children have a bright view of the world and often don’t realize how dangerous it can be.
Ruined Opportunities
Companies use social media to check up on their employees, as there is no statute of limitations on tweets and posts. What you said at twelve can affect your job opportunities in the future, and this is evident in the number of recorded instances of job losses due to bad texts. One need only to look on Google for “people who lost jobs because of tweets as kids” and you will find a number of prospective college graduates who lost chances for careers because what they said as a kid is a hazard for the business image.
This Should Have Been Done Years Ago
Social media is often not used as well as it could be, and kids are especially in danger of predation from people with dark intentions, whether it be bullies, racists, or pedophiles. Companies that try to market themselves to such adolescents need to change their target audience. This should have happened years ago.
