Professor Joshua Belknap | Co Req ML | Spring 2024

4/1/24: Too Young for Social Media?

Do you use social media?

If so, what apps do you use?

How old were you when you started using them?

Why did you choose to join?

Were your parents involved in your decision?

If not, why have you chosen not to use social media?

In “New Facebook App for Children Ignites Debate Among Families” Mike Isaac and Natasha Singer write:

Few big technology companies have dared to create online products for boys and girls ages 13 and under.

Facebook introduced an app called Messenger Kids that is targeted at that age group and asks parents to give their approval so children can message, add filters and doodle on photos they send to one another. It is a bet that the app can introduce a new generation of users to the Silicon Valley giant’s ever-expanding social media universe.

In doing so, Facebook immediately reignited a furious debate about how young is too young for children to use mobile apps and how parents should deal with the steady creep of technology into family life, especially as some fight to reduce the amount of time their sons and daughters spend in front of screens. On one side are parents like Matt Quirion of Washington, who said Facebook’s snaking its way into his children’s lives at an early age would most likely do more harm than good.

“I’m an avid social media user, but I don’t feel my kids need more social interaction,” said Mr. Quirion, 39, whose three children are between ages 3 and 9. “They need their personal time to process all the social interaction and learn to grow into mature people.”

Just as vocal are parents like Parker Thompson of Alameda, Calif., who said children’s adoption of technology is an inevitability and who appreciated Facebook’s approach with the new app.

“Today, much of the time our options come down to giving kids devices and trusting things will work out, watching them closely at all times, or banning technology,” said Mr. Thompson, 38, a father of three children between 6 months to 8 years old. “Tech is going to be something kids adopt. The question is how this will happen.”

Read this carefully, then tell us:

— In your opinion, how young is too young to use social media?

— What are some of the drawbacks and benefits of introducing technology at an early age?

—Does it interfere with family life and children’s personal time to process social interactions and get to know themselves?

—Or does it help young children connect with others and learn to use social media safely in a controlled environment?

— Over all, do you think apps like Facebook’s Messenger Kids will do more harm or good?

— Should parents be worried about their children’s privacy and the way Facebook may collect and use data from the app? Do you think Facebook is acting in the best interests of children? Or itself?

Post below in the reply section. If you have any questions, let me know.

13 Comments

  1. Kevin

    I think that probably 14 and younger is too young to use sicial media kids can get addicted to all the dopamine the apps provide and that never is good in general and they could also encounter lots of things they should not at that age or in any age in general.

    I dont see any benefits in introducing social media to kids in a eraly age there is nothing that I can think of that would benefit a kid using sicial media.

    Yes I think with all the wierd thing hapening in the world or the internet now a days kids can just see the things that they see and think they are that with out giving it a second thought and thinking that their identity is that only because the internet sais so.

    I think that learning how to use social media can be larnt later on but being in the internet early on iI dont see any benefits to their personal life.

    probably harm they will just collect all the information of your kids early on.

    I dont think that the facebook kid is not intended to do any good in my opinion kids don’t need any kind of social media in their life that early on in their life specially when they have to learn how to be social in real life.

    • Kevin Park

      I do use social media instagram in specific I stated to use social media from 14 or 15 I joined because social media was being used by all my friends my parents were not involved in the decision of me starting to use social media I didn’t want to feel left out from my friends when all of them were using it.

  2. marias

    Do you use social media?

    I do.

    If so, what apps do you use?

    I do use instagram, TikTok and twitter.

    How old were you when you started using them?

    I was like 14 years old.

    Why did you choose to join?

    Because everyone was doing it.

    Were your parents involved in your decision?

    I asked them for permission.

     In your opinion, how young is too young to use social media?

    Boys and girls ages 15 and under.

    — What are some of the drawbacks and benefits of introducing technology at an early age?

    The only way to make it beneficial is to teach them how to prevent bad things.

    —Does it interfere with family life and children’s personal time to process social interactions and get to know themselves?

    Completely because social networks are like a vice.

    —Or does it help young children connect with others and learn to use social media safely in a controlled environment?

    it doesn’t help young people because I don’t think it’s the right time for them.

    — Over all, do you think apps like Facebook’s Messenger Kids will do more harm or good?

    It’s good because it’s safe.

    — Should parents be worried about their children’s privacy and the way Facebook may collect and use data from the app? Do you think Facebook is acting in the best interests of children? Or itself?

    Yes, They should be worried about their children’s privacy.

  3. Valentina Martinez

    Do you use social media?

    A: Yes

    If so, what apps do you use?

    A: mostly instagram, sometimes TikTok and facebook.

    How old were you when you started using them?

    A: I was 8 years old, and I started using just Facebook.

    Why did you choose to join?

    A: My sister and some of my family members had Facebook by that time.

    Were your parents involved in your decision?

    A: An aunt but my parents always try to check what I was doing.

    If not, why have you chosen not to use social media?

    A: N/A

     â€”In your opinion, how young is too young to use social media?

    A: 2-12 years old 

     

    — What are some of the drawbacks and benefits of introducing technology at an early age?

    A: Maybe they can feel more comfortable with the technology.

    —Does it interfere with family life and children’s personal time to process social interactions and get to know themselves?

    A: Yes, kids that are constant using social media spend less time interacting with other people.

    —Or does it help young children connect with others and learn to use social media safely in a controlled environment?

    A: I think it is a pretty dangerous environment. I would like in a future my kids start to use it when they turn older and can thinking in a mature way. 

    — Over all, do you think apps like Facebook’s Messenger Kids will do more harm or good?

    A: It is good because you can have your kids tracking but is not actually needed at that age.

    — Should parents be worried about their children’s privacy and the way Facebook may collect and use data from the app? Do you think Facebook is acting in the best interests of children? Or itself?

    A: I think Facebook is acting in the best interests of the kids because their parents can track them, but also for itself because this mean for them more consumers.

  4. Caleb

    In your opinion, how young is too young to use social media?

    • In my opinion I think children should be given the chance to be able to adapt to technology since they will be in that environment in a few years to come.

    *What are some of the drawbacks and benefits of introducing technology at an early age?

    • 1.Giving children the early access to technology at a young age can disturb the focus of the kid to pay attention in school and also make them get addicted to social media and just spending a lot of screen time on the phone without actually thinking about their health.
    • 2. Some benefit of giving children access to technology at an early age helps them be able to adapt and advance more in the field of technology since technology is all around us and involved in our education system and everyday life. This will help kids not find it that difficult in the future working around technology. Eg Our parents are not that familiar with internet because there was less access to internet during their era so therefore most of them are finding it difficult to adapt to the current system, so helping our kids will prevent them from having similar problems when they are grown.

    *Does it interfere with family life and children’s personal time to process social interactions and get to know themselves?

    • I feel it does not always interfere with the life of the kids and family, the reason why for saying this is, the parent is responsible for seeing to it that certain task are done before allowing the kid to use her phone and if the kid refuses to listen and still insist of getting the phone before doing any task then it will be ceased. Also I feeI technology does not interfere with the personal time and family time for the kids.

    *Or does it help young children connect with others and learn to use social media safely in a controlled environment?

    Yes i feel social media helps kids connect with friends and be able to feel connected to each other and also helps kids who are loners to be able to find a place to also be a part of so they can also be happy. It will also help the kids be happy and also help them learn the advantages and disadvantages of social media or the internet whiles growing up.

    *Over all, do you think apps like Facebook’s Messenger Kids will do more harm or good?

    Over all,I think social media apps like facebook’s messenger for kids will do more good to kids than harm because they can get in touch with their friends should incase they are not present in school they can contact them and find out what was studied, also they can also learn about what is going on in the world and also advice themselves with such situations so as not to get into the same situation.

    *Should parents be worried about their children’s privacy and the way Facebook may collect and use data from the app? Do you think Facebook is acting in the best interests of children? Or itself?

    I think parents should not be really worried that much concerned about heir children’s privacy and the way Facebook may collect and use data from the app because this has been going on ever since social media was created and this data collected helps to find bugs and ways to improve the apps to better use. Because if you really want to fight or be worried about this then you will end up not winning the case because each and everyday of our life our data is been collected whether we know it or not and is been used and sold to other people to market to us, but if you will like your data not to be sold or shared then each and every website or anything you sign up for on the internet you have to reach out to the company or opt in with the request that you do not want your data to be sold or used and they will go by what you say and this is done only in some states like California.

  5. Shahzoda

    Do you use social media? Unfortunately yes I do use Instagram.

    If so, what apps do you use? I do use only Instagram. ( only on weekends bc I don’t have time on weekdays. )

    How old were you when you started using them? I think I was 19 or 20 years old when I opened an Instagram account ( I don’t know why I did that because now I can’t close my account for some reason. )

    Why did you choose to join? I have no idea why I did that.

    Were your parents involved in your decision? No actually. ( because they didn’t know that time I had Instagram. )

    If not, why have you chosen not to use social media? I don’t use Instagram daytime because I don’t have time at all.

  6. Giselle

    • Yes, I use social media
    • I use Facebook, messenger and WhatsApp.
    • I think I was 18 or 17 when I used Facebook and Whatsapp, but messenger I think I’ve used it since I was 13 years old.
    • I choose to join messenger to contact my friends and Facebook, WhatsApp I joined because it was for church.
    • Yes, my mom was involved in my decision.
    • In my opinion, I will say around 10 years old is too young to use social media because they may be distracted from their studies, wouldn’t want to socialize anymore, and it will be bad for kids to use social media in a young age because they’ll make friends who are strangers and will see like bad stuff, like bad things that are happening around the world that might affect the kid with bad behavior.
    • I don’t think there are some drawbacks and benefits of introducing technology at an early age.
    • Yes, it does interfere with family life and children’s personal time to process social interactions and getting to know themselves because social media is like an addiction for kids that can distract them from what’s going on in life and social media will like change their behavior from interacting with other people.
    • It helps young children connect with others, but it’s not really safe to talk with other people who you don’t know because they can be dangerous people and kids learning learning how to use social media safely in a controlled environment won’t help much because kids will then just keep using social media nonstop.
    • I’m not really sure if apps like Facebook’s Messenger Kids will do harm or good because I have heard about it, but I’ve never used it before so I think kids shouldn’t still use social media when they are in the rightful age to use like when they have better understanding and make right decisions.
    • Yes, parents should be worried about their children’s privacy and that Facebook may collect and use data from the app because just in case to see if they aren’t giving too much information to an unknown sender that can lead to scam, also to make sure if they aren’t messaging to the wrong people or anything bad. Maybe Facebook is acting in the best interest of children or itself because it’s good that they are helping kids connecting with their friends, and family that live far away, but at the same time Facebook can be a distraction for the children and it can be dangerous at the same time.
  7. Afrin Akter

    Yes I use social media. I have been using social media since I was 17 years old. I use Instagram and Twitter. At that time all my friends and family members were using social media so I also used it. I took permission from my parents and used it.

    I think under 16 is too young for social media.

    I don’t see any benefit of using social media at a young age. In my opinion social media is not mandatory. Children will learn about life. Social media is just a trend.

    Yes, it interferes with family socialization and children’s self-discovery.

    No I don’t think it helps to join social media at early age. Because social media outrage is nothing important. Studying at early age is more important to learn new skills.

    The Facebook Messenger Kids app is made for kids. So it is not harmful for them. But when it becomes too addictive, it becomes harmful.

    The parents of this generation should think about their children’s privacy. They should give themselves time before handing the internet phone to the children. Social media is just a useless trend. Facebook works only for its own benefit.

  8. achraf belli

    Yes I use social media

    Instagram, Facebook

    I started using Facebook since I was 13yo then instagram when I was 16 yo.

    The reason why I joined them is because of all my friends had one in that time .

    My parents didn’t involve in my decision because in that time the social media wasn’t popular like now so they didn’t know nothing about it .

    I think 13 years old Young is too young to use social media because kids in certain age they need to have time in real life learning new things in this life instead of spending time in a virtual world.

    Some of the drawbacks and benefits of introducing technology at an early age are it can develop fast learning , creativity and problem solving skills.

    Using social media at a young age can interfere with family life and children’s personal time, it’s important for kids to live in a real life more to develop their social skills .

    In my opinion, I think it helps young children connect with others and learn to use social media safely in a controlled environment, this can help kids to develop their skills in online learning more responsibly.

    I think apps like Facebook’s Messenger Kids can have negative and positive impacts, it can help kids make a connection with others and maybe learn from each other. However it can also reduce their social skills.

    I think that parents should be worried about their children’s privacy and the way Facebook may collect and use data from the app

  9. kenny

    I personally think that it is not appropriate for children under 13 to use social media because they may become addicted to it and not be able to focus on other things.

    I think social media has no benefits for young children. If they are exposed to it too early, it will affect their studies, etc.

    yes, I think there’s a lot of weird stuff on social media right now and kids might be communicating less with their families.They will learn things they shouldn’t learn from the Internet.

    It doesn’t help kids because I don’t think it’s the right time for them.

    This is good because everyone is roughly the same age, so it’s safe.

    I don’t think Facebook has any benefits for kids. Anyway, the earlier kids are exposed to it, the worse it is.

  10. Junior Chamblain

    Yes, I do I remember that I started using social media at the age of 14. I started using it because all my friends were already using social media and my mother accepted that I used it, but she had control of everything I was doing on the phone because I was a teenager, she didn’t want me to get into things I wasn’t supposed to get into

     My opinion is that a child can start using social media at the age of 16. Under 16, a child should not be using it because there are too many bad things going on.

    What are some of the drawbacks and benefits of introducing technology at an early age?

    I think the advantages can be when you introduce them to technology at a young age, they will only evolve with the technology revolution, but you are supposed to teach them how to use it.

    Does it interfere with family life and children’s personal time to process social interactions and get to know themselves?

     Overall, do you think apps like Facebook’s Messenger Kids will do more harm or good?

    it will do more harm than good.

    Should parents be worried about their children’s privacy and the way Facebook may collect and use data from the app? Do you think Facebook is acting in the best interests of children? Or itself?

    Yes, parent should be worried because when Facebook collect your date and sell it with other company it’s like they expose you, you don’t have your privacy.

    I think Facebook is in his own interest they just here to make money.

  11. Farhan

    1.Do you use social media?

    Yes I do use social media.

    2.If so, what apps do you use?

    I use instagram, facebook, Youtube.

    3.How old were you when you started using them?

    I was 16 years old .

    4.Why did you choose to join?

    I choose it because I Used communicate with my friends in facebook, instagram.

    5.Were your parents involved in your decision?

    No.

    6.If not, why have you chosen not to use social media?

    I chosen because this is the easiest way to communicate with friends.

    7.In your opinion, how young is too young to use social media?

    In my opinion I think 12 years old.

    8.What are some of the drawbacks and benefits of introducing technology at an early age?

    Benefits: Early digital literacy, educational resources, creativity, communication.

    9.Or does it help young children connect with others and learn to use social media safely in a controlled environment?

    It’s too young to communicate with others.

    10. Over all, do you think apps like Facebook’s Messenger Kids will do more harm or good?

    I think it’s depends how often kids are using it.

  12. Melanie

    Do you use social media?

    Yes, I use social media

    If so, what apps do you use?

    I use Instagram, facebook and whatsapp 

    How old were you when you started using them?

    I started to use Facebook and Whatsapp when I had 12 or 13 and Instagram when I had 15 

    Why did you choose to join?

    I chose to join Facebook because it was an app that everyone used in my school, this happened the same with Whatsapp and I joined Instagram for my friends that I made in High School.

    Were your parents involved in your decision?

    Yes, they were involved in two first apps because I was so young and they were worried about it but I gave them explanations because sometimes I had to do homework in groups and those apps were the unique way to communicate with them. 

    — In your opinion, how young is too young to use social media?

    Boys and girls 14 or younger

    — What are some of the drawbacks and benefits of introducing technology at an early age?

    I believe that there is no benefit, children at their young age have to learn to live in the real world and not be immersed in technology.

    —Does it interfere with family life and children’s personal time to process social interactions and get to know themselves?

    Yes, since when you enter technology you become very addicted. Whether it’s talking to people they don’t know or playing games and spending time they could use.

    —Or does it help young children connect with others and learn to use social media safely in a controlled environment?

    Young children must live their lives with the people they love and learning to know others. They should not be on social networks because that does not help them and even less so for the development of their memories.

    — Over all, do you think apps like Facebook’s Messenger Kids will do more harm or good?

    It will do neither good nor evil. But it is good that it is safe since children could be talking to people they do not know and it could hurt them. But I still think that children don’t have to have social networks.

    — Should parents be worried about their children’s privacy and the way Facebook may collect and use data from the app? Do you think Facebook is acting in the best interests of children? Or itself?

    Yes, they should since we don’t know what they could do with the information they collect from everyone.

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