No responsible parent would hand over a knife to their child and walk away. We know young children will probably hurt themselves or others with a potential weapon. As they grow older, they need to be supervised and taught how to use that knife safely and eventually, they will be trusted to do so alone.
Social media use is like a knife.
Only, it has been around for less time. And its ‘sharp edges’ have started to emerge in recent years. We are seeing that social media can cause harm if used irresponsibly. And while the damage might not be physical, the repercussions can cut as deeply: mental health issues, low self-esteem, and unrealistic expectations are just a few examples.
When it comes to social media use, our young people are often being left alone – to figure it out.
The novelty of social media to the parent and educator generation – and the constantly evolving landscape – make it difficult and daunting for adults to understand how to use it themselves, let alone teach their children.
Banning children completely from social media use would place them at a social disadvantage compared to peers and possibly alienate them.
But unless we understand its severe implications then we are going to keep slipping down a very dangerous slide.
The severity of the situation was flagged in the recent Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey that revealed that Malta has one of the highest rates of addiction-like social media use among teenagers across 44 countries.
Natasha Azzopardi Muscat, WHO Europe’s director for Country Health Policies and Systems, said Malta needs a national debate on regulating social media use among children and teenagers. She underlined that, sometimes, governments must intervene in the industry. For example, countries like Norway and Australia, are restricting access for younger teenagers to protect their young people.
And this is something we might want to consider given Malta’s worrying trends reflected in the HBSC survey.
Our young people are essentially walking around holding an unlocked, pocket-sized portal into a virtual world. They rely on that screen for pretty much everything: from information to entertainment to communicating with others.
The worst part of it all is that it leads to a world of unrealistic perfection that is delivered to them in a way that fuels addictive-like behaviour – through the algorithms and the dopamine rush brought about by seeing to notifications. The survey shows that young people are in so deep that this is interfering with their daily life.
They are too young to see this because they have not spent enough time living in the real world.
They need a sherpa – to guide and help them navigate that digital world, to recognise the good from the bad, the real from the fake. They need to understand algorithms, recognising bias, and questioning the authenticity of content to avoid falling prey to misleading information.
In other words, they need to be guided back to reality, to become aware of the lasting nature of online content and the risks of oversharing.
Self-awareness around online interactions needs to be promoted to help youngsters set boundaries to prevent burnout, comparison anxiety, and cyberbullying.
The next step should be an aggressive, nationwide digital literacy campaign that addresses the adults.
And then the conversation must move on to educators, parents, adolescents and industry players who must come to the table with an open mind that recognises that social media is a double-edged sword.