Essay Example on Dangers of Social Media

I was around the age eight when I made my first Instagram account. I did not know what it was, I just knew that my mom had one and I wanted one as well. I started getting follow request from random strangers and honestly, I just wanted a lot of followers, so I accepted it. Within three months of having an Instagram account, I had over one-hundred followers. My mom got suspicious, took my phone, and went through all of them. Out of one-hundred followers, I only knew thirty. My mom blocked the other seventy and I was furious. I worked hard to gain one-hundred followers and she just took it all away within thirty minutes. I was crying and I felt defeated; however, knowing what I know now, I would have done the same thing.

There are many dangers to social media, from cyberbullying to online predators. A curious seven-year-old would not know the dangers of talking to strangers online and will not see anything wrong with it. There are an estimated five-hundred-thousand online predators active each day. Children between the ages of twelve and fifteen are especially susceptible to be groomed or manipulated by adults they meet online. When I was ten, I had an online friend who said her name was Aaliyah. Aaliyah and I would talk every day, she said she was the younger sister of Rihanna and me being a young child, I believed her. I even gave her my phone number. One day my mom caught me talking to her and got suspicious and make me block her on everything. I have not heard from “Aaliyah” since. 

Another reason kids should not have social media is cyber bullying. Cyberbullying is when a person uses digital technology to deliberately and repeatedly harass, humiliate, embarrass, torment, threaten, pick on or intimidate another person. Cyberbullying often leaves children and teenagers with lowered self-esteem, less interest in school and low academic achievement. Children and teenagers who experience cyberbullying might feel confused by changes in their friendship groups. They might also feel alone, lonely, and isolated. Today, when kids see other kids being cyber bullied, they instantly become bystanders which leaves the victim feeling helpless. Kids are cyber bullied on Tiktok, Instagram, Snapchat and more. Ten-year-old Ashlynn Conner was bullied so much that she begged her mom to homeschool her. She desperately wanted an escape from the horrible kids at school, but her mom refused. The bullying continued at home through social media. She was called “fat” and “ugly” and then it turned into her being called a “slut,” even though she did not know the meaning behind the word. She then cut her hair so she could feel good about herself and was then called “pretty boy.” Her sister was the one to find her hanging in her closet by a scarf. She was an innocent ten-year-old little girl whose life was cut short. 

Other than cyberbullying, there are many cases of teens being lured off social media apps by online predators and unfortunately some of them have never been found. Take Kristin Helms for example, she was a fifteen-year-old girl who committed suicide following a sexual relationship with a twenty-seven-year-old man she met online. On July 17th, 2006, she hanged herself, leaving a note behind that identified Kiley Bowers as the man who raped her. She was only fifteen. She had her whole life ahead of her. A more recent case is Naomi Jones, in 2017 a twelve-year-old girl was missing for five days before her body was found. An Alabama man, Robert Letroy Howard, who is a registered sex offender has been arrested and charged with kidnapping, homicide and disposing of her body.  It was reported that Howard had interacted with Naomi on social media, although the Sheriff's Office did not elaborate on the details. This case serves as a clear reminder of how vulnerable children can be online.

Along with cyberbullying and online predators, kids can also see things on social media that they should not be seeing. An example would be my younger cousin who had social media since she was a young child and she now, at the age of twelve, is addicted to watching porn. With that being said, I propose that children under fifteen should not be allowed to use any social media. There should be a law in place so social media apps should require a driver’s license number in order to make an account and yea kids can just use their parents license number, but it should be to where you can only use a license number once. So many lives have been taken away due to social media and it has to stop. 

Without social media, kids will be able to be kids and enjoy their innocence with worrying about being bullied or groomed. Social media is more than just posting cute pictures and talking to friends.