In 2023, I participated as a delegate in the UN UK Commission focused on children’s digital literacy and online safety. As part of the commission, delegates were given access to a series of expert presentations and workshops examining how digital platforms shape children’s wellbeing, development, and safety.
Across these sessions, a recurring theme emerged: while digital platforms are often presented as neutral tools, their underlying design and economic incentives can expose children to significant risks, often without their active searching or intent.
One factor that complicates efforts to safeguard children online is the scale of the commercial interests involved. A recent U.S. simulation study estimated that social media companies generate nearly $11 billion annually from users aged 0–17. Because platforms do not publicly disclose age-specific revenue data, researchers modelled these estimates using advertising and marketing data. The findings suggest that major social media corporations, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube, derive substantial profit from children and adolescents, raising concerns about where child protection sits among corporate priorities (Raffoul et al., 2023).
| Platform | Net Ad Revenue (USD) |
| $25,750,000,000 | |
| $29,790,000,000 | |
| Snapchat | $2,723,700,000 |
| TikTok | $5,960,000,000 |
| $3,010,000,000 | |
| YouTube | $8,020,000,000 |
Table. Summary of estimated total advertising revenue for social media platforms in the U.S., 2022. Anticipated annual advertising earnings in 2022 for each platform were determined using data from eMarketer (as cited by Raffoul et al., 2023), a research company specialising in business marketing.
Dangers of social media and chidlren’s self-perception
Looking through various presentations I caught myself hooked on one, which illuminated the problems that young teens may experience while innocuously browsing in their social media feed. Apparently, thinking that the social media platforms can be safe was a huge oversight. Apart from promoting unhealthy “beauty standard” images that can perpetuate body dysmorphia and self-harm related posts, the platforms can help child abusers the opportunity to hunt for their victims.
As the OFCOM (2023) research demonstrated, approximately 29% of children between the ages of 8 and 17 encountered negative or hurtful interactions through apps or social media platforms, whereas 20% had a similar experience in face-to-face interactions. Furthermore, the research team observed the decrease in comparison with last year in children’s tendencies to use their social networks as means to connect and communicate with their peers, rather, it is commonly used for the purposes of viewing content instead of actively interacting.
There are a lot of ways on the internet to lure kids into seeing inappropriate content without their grown-ups knowing. For example, a fascinating research experiment was conducted by 5RightsFoundation (2023). Researchers set an aim to create ten mock accounts (“avatars“) of teenagers and explore the type of contact and the type of messages the accounts would receive on the social media platform, given that their accounts’ details were public (such things as age and the list of the followed accounts). As a result, strangers on the Internet approached the fake accounts of four boys and two girls on Instagram, sent them messages of different characters (ranging from asking for following back or asking to support a particular product they were selling) and invited them to group chats. Some of those chats shared links to websites with adult content or explicit dating sites.
It is not a secret that social media platforms pursue their algorithms that adjust to the user’s liking. Surprisingly, the researchers also revealed that after liking and following content similar to what the actual 14-year-old child mentioned engaging with on social media (e.g., posts from models, musicians, and meme accounts), the ‘explore’ feed became populated with a greater number of sexualised photos of both women and men. The other “avatar,” a 17-year-old girl, began to receive content related to weight loss and dieting and was subsequently exposed to a high volume of distorted body-image content after liking a single post about dieting beneath a sportswear brand image. Despite being registered as children, these avatars of the same age group received age-appropriate targeted ads, such as those for toys or school-related products. However, they continued to be exposed to inappropriate content, including sexualised images and material promoting eating disorders, weight loss, and self-harm, despite social media companies being aware of their status as children.
The question of one’s gender may also play a role in the perception of the social media for girls (but not gaming, as the developmental damage may be greater for boys). Girls’ mental health deterioration may be more susceptible to the negative side effects of the social media use than boys. The connections observed were even stronger than the correlations between mental health and activities such as binge drinking, sexual assault, obesity, and the use of hard drugs (see Twenge et al., 2022). Partially this may happen due to revealed girls’ tendency to look for feedback about themselves and being more engaged in negative social comparisons (Nesi & Prinstein, 2015), or due to the fear of missing out (Internet matters, 2022). At the same time, the study by an organisation “Internet matters” maintains that while girls are a bit more prone to report negative impacts on social well-being than boys, these differences were not statistically significant based on the conducted tests (Internet matters, 2022, p. 66).
It’s important to make sure kids understand how to use social media wisely and stay alert to the not-so-great aspects of the internet. Schools, parents, and families need to work together to teach kids about this. The website http://culturereframed.org has some special courses to help parents and carers educate young people about the dangers of social media and online entertainment.
Parenting style and children’s digital habits
At the same time, as the recent research has found, the ethical use of internet does not only hinge on children’s digital literacy, but also on the parenting style. As Geurts et al. (2023) discovered, there are three main attitudes towards the internet use among parents in terms or their autonomy granting and responsiveness: Limiting and less supportive, Tolerant and supportive, and Limiting and supportive. To no surprise, it was evident that children (regardless of gender and age) with tolerant and supportive parents scored lower incidents of problematic social media use, which was measured by the 27 items for the Social Media Disorder Scale (see van den Eijnden et al., 2016).
It is also important to work on your child’s self-esteem (in particular, one’s perception of their body image) and encourage the positive perception of oneself – as longitudinal research illustrates, 13-year-old children (especially girls) with high self-esteem will engage less with social platforms and will experience less of depressive episodes at 17/18 years as a result (see Layte et al., 2023). However, of course, it is a not an overnight work – parents, as role models, need to reflect the similar way of self-acceptance and self-love so that the children could adopt the similar lenses onto their own appearances.
Takeaways and practical tips:
- Make sure the children understand the caveats of sharing their personal information online. As Ofcom (2023) report shows, one in ten (13%) children (12-15-year-olds) would share their personal information even if they did not want it (p. 36)
- Children of the age range from 12 to 15 (35%) and 16-17 (37%) had more chances to face hurtful communication via online platforms than children aged 8-11 (20%), which thus signals about the need to openly raise and discuss the topic of cyberbullying and negative online experiences from the young age to ensure the child knows how to protect personal boundaries and whom to approach in the case of the assault
- Do not forget that children spend time in social media in most cases trying to fulfil their need for connection. General parenting style may have an impact onto the adolescents’ ecological use of social media, thus, building warm and supportive relationship can become the prerequisite of their proper use of social media.
- Ofcom has created a simulator “serious game” to teach children about social media etiquette – the set of rules/appropriate behaviour on social media. You can play it together with a child and check out their understanding of their online behaviour and their decision-making https://populuslive.online-host.solutions/mrIWeb/mrIWeb.dll (you can learn more about the project here: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/245127/serious-game-pilot-results.pdf )
- Download the family tech agreement here: https://parents.culturereframed.org/tech-guide/ to delineate the boundaries and agree on the ethical use of the Internet with minimal harm for your children. Although the contract may seem a bit too thorough, you can always get inspired by some of the ideas and create your own contract that would reflect the needs and values of your family in the best way
- If you feel that your child has been a victim of an online harm or abuse, please check out free parents’ cyber first aid box that that may help families out of the unpleasant predicament. The platform guides families through addressing harmful online incidents by posing relevant questions about approaching the subject with children, suggesting solutions, and outlining initial steps for recovery. https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/digilearn/2022/08/02/cyber-first-aid-box-new-resource/#:~:text=The%20Cyber%20First%20Aid%20Box,Cyber%20First%20Aid%20Box%20website or: https://roxannekerr.wixsite.com/my-site-1/copy-of-cyber-intro
- Here you can find some guidelines on how to protect young people from social scams https://www.internetmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Internet-Matters-Social-Scams-Guide-ver2.pdf
- Some study materials for your child and you to help them create and maintain a positive image online (recommended for Year 6 age group) https://www.internetmatters.org/digital-matters/lesson/introduction-to-positive-self-image-online/?user_type=student
- Other learning material for younger age groups (0-5) can be found here: https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/0-5/
When you think about your child’s online life, what worries you the most and what do you feel least prepared for? Please respond in the comments x
References
5Rights Foundation. (2023). Digital Childhood: Addressing childhood development milestones in the digital environment. https://5rightsfoundation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Digital-Childhood-Report-2023.pdf
Culture Reframed. (n.d.). Family tech agreement: A guide for ethical and developmentally appropriate technology use.
https://parents.culturereframed.org/tech-guide/
Education Scotland. (2022). Cyber First Aid Box: A resource for parents and carers responding to online harm.
https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/digilearn/2022/08/02/cyber-first-aid-box-new-resource/
Gentzler, A. L., Hughes, J. L., Johnston, M., & Alderson, J. E. (2023). Which social media platforms matter and for whom? Examining moderators of links between adolescents’ social media use and depressive symptoms. Journal of Adolescence, 95, 1725–1748. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12243
Geurts, S. M., Koning, I. M., Van den Eijnden, R. J., & Vossen, H. G. (2023). Predicting adolescents’ problematic social media use from profiles of internet-specific parenting practices and general parenting dimensions. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 52(9), 1829-1843. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01816-4
Internet Matters. (2022). Children’s wellbeing in a digital world: Index report. https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/childrens-wellbeing-in-a-digital-world-index-report/
Internet Matters. (n.d.). Introduction to positive self-image online (Digital Matters).
https://www.internetmatters.org/digital-matters/lesson/introduction-to-positive-self-image-online/?user_type=student
Internet Matters. (n.d.). Advice for parents of children aged 0–5.
https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/0-5/
Kerr, R. (n.d.). Cyber First Aid Box: Supporting families after online harm.
https://roxannekerr.wixsite.com/my-site-1/copy-of-cyber-intro
Layte, R., Brannigan, R., & Stanistreet, D. (2023). Digital engagement and adolescent depression: A longitudinal mediation analysis adjusting for selection. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2023.100293
Nesi, J., & Prinstein, M. J. (2015). Using social media for social comparison and feedback seeking: Gender and popularity moderate associations withdepressive symptoms.Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 43, 1427–1438. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0020-0
Ofcom. (2023). Children and parents: Media use and attitudes report. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/media-literacy-research/childrens/children-and-parents-media-use-and-attitudes-report-2023
Ofcom. (2023). Serious game pilot: Teaching children about online decision-making and social media etiquette.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/245127/serious-game-pilot-results.pdf
Raffoul A, Ward ZJ, Santoso M, Kavanaugh JR, Austin SB (2023) Social media platforms generate billions of dollars in revenue from U.S. youth: Findings from a simulated revenue model. PLoS ONE 18(12): e0295337. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0295337
Twenge, J. M., Haidt, J., Lozano, J., & Cummins, K. M. (2022). Specification curve analysis shows that social media use is linked to poor mental health, especially among girls. Acta psychologica, 224, 103512. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691822000270
Van Den Eijnden, R. J., Lemmens, J. S., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2016). The social media disorder scale. Computers in human behavior, 61, 478-487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.038
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