Essay Sample: Social Media and Teen Mental Disorders

California, a new bill has just been passed that allows parents of children who suffer from social media addictions to sue major companies like Instagram for up to $25,000 for causing the addiction. This bill aims to try and prevent teen addictions that occur from using such platforms. In conclusion, social media addiction has shown to be a very harmful effect that social media causes among many teens and young children.

Unquestionably, cyberbullying is a leading cause of many harmful effects on teens and young children’s mental and physical health by causing many mental illnesses that could even lead to suicide. The definition of cyberbullying is bullying with the use of digital technologies. It can take place on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms, and mobile phones. It is repeated behavior, aimed at scaring, angering, or shaming those who are targeted (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund). Many teens and children are the targets of cyberbullying, leaving them feeling isolated and depressed, through the spreading of false information, leading to the embarrassment and harassment of the person, sending hurtful or threatening messages to the person, and using a fake account to harass someone. Nationwide, about 16 percent of students in grades 9–12 experienced cyberbullying, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey (National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice) 2019. Moreover, cyberbullying is very common among teens and children and has many harmful consequences. Victims of cyberbullying can often feel overwhelmed, anxious, insecure, and isolation that often leads to even some physical effects such as headaches, stomach pain, and nausea, in some extreme cases, cyberbullying has even led to tragic suicides. One victim, Mallory Grossman, committed suicide after months of extreme tormenting and harassment online through messages. Her story is one of many examples of teens and children getting bullied online to the point of taking their own lives. Cyberbullying is undoubtedly one of the considerable issues among social media users by far, causing some of the most harmful effects.

Surprisingly, there are an estimated 500,000 online predators active each day online, and over 50 percent of the victims of online sexual exploitation are between the ages of 12 and 15 according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.). Without a doubt, that number is an alarming amount of predators online each day, putting many teens and children at risk of being groomed every single day. Many of these online predators often use websites or platforms that are known to have many young people active and create fake accounts to communicate with them. Many of these predators attempt to pressure these young children into taking inappropriate or explicit pictures to send to them, and the child does not even know what they are being tricked into. The child may not even realize what is happening to them, considering these predators can pretend to be anyone online, usually posing as the same age as the victim. These predators often do not get caught or are unrecognized, but they can receive jail time for committing this crime. These crimes that online predators are most commonly vomit are grooming, engaging in sexually explicit communication, sextortion, meeting for sex, and involvement in collecting, distributing, and producing child sexual abuse material (INHOPE). Furthermore, online predators are a highly considerable and dangerous threat that social media presents.

On the contrary, in some ways, social media has beneficial attributes for teens and young children by bringing them together, even though they may be apart, strengthening face-to-face relationships, and providing quick access to different kinds of information. These positive attributes of social media are the main reasons many people use and enjoin social media. Many teens and children use social media to communicate with their friends and family when they are not around them physically. In 2018, a study with Hopelab and Well Being Trust found that 93% of youth aged 14-22 use social media, most daily (HopeLab). This use of social media was especially useful during the Coronavirus pandemic shutdown, in 2020, with many people using social media as their main source of communication. According to a survey conducted by Common Sense Media, among teens, aged 13-18, found that 41% of teens use screen media more than eight hours a day, up from 29% in 2019. This statistic shows that many more teens are using social media, and using it a lot more to communicate since the pandemic started. Social media often was a tool during the pandemic to keep teens and children busy during isolation. Furthermore, social media can also be beneficial for teens and young children.

In total, while social media has its benefits, social media is harmful to teens and young children. The negative effects of social media have caused mental and physical health issues for teens, including addiction to cell phones, exposure to online cyberbullying, and worse, exposing them to online predators. Using social media, teens and children are victims of cyberbullying, social media addiction, and child predators, which, in turn, causes many negative mental health effects, like mental illness symptoms, which can even lead to suicide. To reduce this, social media companies need to make more rules in place to make social media an overall safer place.