English Speech

Today I’m going to be discussing children on social media,  is it a good thing or bad? According to ofcom 99% of children went on social media in 2021 which includes everyone in this room! It was most likely for positive reasons such as texting friends or online school throughout lockdown but what about those children who put themselves out there  available to all this hate. A majority of children under 13 had their own profile on at least one social media app or site; 33% of parents of 5-7s said their child had a profile, and 60% of 8-11s said they had one, less than 30% of these accounts are parent monitored therefore who really knows what a child could be dealing with. 

Some children are put onto social media before they've even entered the world, such as family youtube channels, Family youtube channels are extremely toxic as children are forced from birth to live up to the camera and always seem happy, it could also be dangerous as private details are exposed and this can really manipulate the way these children grow up most of these kids are homeschooled due to bullying therefore their education is also disturbed as well as their privacy.

An article about the Labrant family came out not even a week ago addressing how their fans seem to think they use their children for views, this is an american family channel which started with 1 child but now theres 4 all in which had their birth video and uploaded to around 13.1 million followers! Everleigh is 9 years old and has a net worth of $2 million- that isn’t normal and shouldn't be true, Private health matters are constantly being shared to millions of strangers- last week a half an hour video was uploaded all about their son having a seizure.

Many celebrities have opened their eyes and are deciding to keep their children's identity private such as kylie jenner, gigi hadid and nick jonas as they want to protect their privacy and also aren't posting them until they can give consent. 

Majority of social media platforms have an age restriction  for over 13s but 9/10 this rule is overlooked but people don't think about the fact  that rule is there to protect children who aren't mature enough to be posted online and potentially taken advantage of

“Half the number of primary school children that had received a naked image from an adult had sent naked or semi-naked image or video of themselves; 1 in 50 children of primary school age had sent such an image to an adult” this statement is from the nspcc. Primary school children are 11 or younger so if the rules were stuck to the amount of children would be much less but of cause no adults should be communicating with any child under 18.

Children aren't just on personal social media accounts they are also on worldwide tv programmes such as bgt, x-factor and netflix series’ most television shows have millions of viewers who all have different opinions imagine being 12 and youve always dreamt of being a singer, then having an opportunity of a lifetime and getting an audition of x-factor but most viewers only having negative opinions would really have a negative effect on their self esteem. Children can get jobs in the media such as in the film industry which can be a positive reason to be in the media for example Stranger Things because at the time of filming, Millie Bobby Brown was 11 years old. Millie is a famous actress with a net worth of around $10 million dollars at only 18. But it wasn’t always good- the first few years of Millies career she was attacked online constantly and had more haters than fans at only 11,12,13 years old

Personally I think the negatives outweigh the positives and that children under 13 should not have access to being online until they are mature enough to be able to deal with the consequences that being in the public eye can bring. Unless the situation is life changing because in that circumstance it is worth it.

What do you think?