Project 3 - Mapping by Ceren Sari

"A guide to parental controls on social media"

cs1820_ — 2023-11-20 22:47:59 UTC

Parents/ Guardians criticize social media companies because they feel that many of these platforms don't provide parental controls or other variations of cybersecurity in a way that provides enough safety for younger users.

Central Claim:

cs1820_ — 2023-11-27 23:10:49 UTC

Targeted advertising heavily influences what younger social media users see on a day-to-day basis. When a social media platform notices a series of patterns, the algorithm will show content similar to what , which can be risky and dangerous.

"In a series of congressional hearings, executives from Facebook (FB), TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram faced tough questions from lawmakers over how their platforms can lead younger users to harmful content, damage mental health and body image (particularly among teenage girls), and lacked sufficient parental controls and safeguards to protect teens...

The four social networks have since introduced more tools and parental control options aimed at better protecting younger users. Some have also made changes to their algorithms, such as defaulting teens into seeing less sensitive content and increasing their moderation efforts. But some lawmakers, social media experts and psychologists say the new solutions are still limited, and more needs to be done."

cs1820_ — 2023-11-27 23:12:23 UTC

The algorithm, for most social media platforms, affects what minors see on their main pages. In certain circumstances (when parental safeguards are not as widespread) minors can be exposed to content that is too mature for their age range.

With this social media companies are being criticized for their incapability to create parental controls in ways that are effective to their conditions.

research

cs1820_ — 2023-12-06 23:33:47 UTC

research states that certain types of traditional and new types of media that arent that prominent with age appropriate content can be dedrimental to their mental growth.

Mental Health

cs1820_ — 2023-12-14 02:54:09 UTC

These patterns of content are not necessarily healthy for minors to see. Additionally, social media has been proven to be detrimental to brain development for children.

Can this possibly be a double sided issue?

cs1820_ — 2023-12-14 03:34:18 UTC

Sometimes it might be a better option for parents to not allow their children to use such platforms at all. Additionally, there have been numerous research articles stating that it's very risky for children to use these platforms when their brains are still in the developing stage.

How much can social media companies really restrict?

cs1820_ — 2023-12-14 03:43:23 UTC

"YouTube has a few options, including "Restricted Mode" on standard YouTube and the curated YouTube Kids app; both are intended to filter out adult content. Restricted Mode is better suited for pre-teens and teens, whereas YouTube Kids is designed for pre-school and early elementary school children. Both restrictions can be beneficial, but they rarely go far enough to keep children safe when using YouTube."

There is only so much that these social media companies can do to provide age-appropriate content as kids can go around content blocks.

Parental Monitoring: What can parents do to protect their kids when parental-controls aren't of much use?

cs1820_ — 2023-12-15 03:57:12 UTC

An important idea to consider is that it should also be up to the parent to be able to restrict the use of social media for their younger children because there is only so much that these social media companies can do to restrict. Minors are usually curious at their young ages and manage to get around parental controls resulting in their exposure to non-age-appropriate content.

Counter-productivity of parental controls

cs1820_ — 2023-12-15 04:00:54 UTC

"Mobile apps designed to help parents keep their children safe from online predators may actually be counterproductive, harming the trust between a parent and child and reducing the child’s ability to respond to online threats, conclude two new studies from the University of Central Florida."

World Health Organization: "Mental Health of Adolescents"

cs1820_ — 2023-12-15 04:10:15 UTC

"Media influence and gender norms can exacerbate the disparity between an adolescent’s lived reality and their perceptions or aspirations for the future."

Social Media and Teens

cs1820_ — 2023-12-15 04:28:33 UTC

"Young people report that there might be good reason to worry. A survey conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health asked 14-24 year olds in the UK how social media platforms impacted their health and wellbeing. The survey results found that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all led to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image and loneliness."