Social Media
The Impacts of Social Media:
Many of the friendship issues which are currently occurring in our upper primary are being fuelled by our 10-12 year olds and their use or misuse of devices. There have been a spate of incidents which amount to cyber bullying resulting in problems between our students at school. We are increasingly concerned about the psychological damage that is being done between the hours of 3pm and 9am when children should be in their safe place at home. Our children are especially vulnerable in those hours after school and into the night. Some of the apps our students are using are encouraging or enabling toxic behaviour.
If your child does not have a smart phone or social media but you want your child to be able to be connected to family or friends there are other options such as a prepaid Optus XLite Dumbphone ($49) or the Spacetalk Adventurer Watch ($299).
If your child is on TikTok, Snapchat etc, clear boundaries and close monitoring are vital to ensuring your child is equipped to deal with the challenges social media brings. For example, you could control the contact list; make a rule that everything is charged in a central spot at night; ensure that the strictest privacy settings are activated.
What is TikTok doing to your child’s brain?
Linda Stade is a Research Officer at Santa Maria College in WA and she states: “The very nature of TikTok is problematic for young adolescents in particular. They have highly malleable, developing brains. Their neural pathways are forming based on what they are doing continuously…They are dividing life into 60 second bites and these 60 second bites encourage a lack of extended concentration and focus"
TikTok itself clearly states it is for people aged 13 years and over and much of the content is inappropriate for our younger children. We fully understand the pressure that our young people are facing and can apply to their parents with their wish to be using these apps but we feel the need to begin a conversation about the impact we are seeing on our students at school.
For more information, please take a look at the following sites:
Cyber Safety Resources - The Department of Education Tasmania
Lynn Wyllie-Watson and Luke Padgett