Warum Social Media für Kinder verboten werden sollte: Ein Blick auf Australien und wissenschaftliche Hintergründe

Australia has started to regulate access to social media for children and even prohibit them in certain cases. This decision is based on scientific findings that show that social media can have significant psychological and physical effects on children and adolescents. This article illuminates the reasons and studies that should lead to such measures.

1. Psychological effects and the delusion of comparison

Young girls in particular are susceptible to the negative effects of social media. Studies show that constant confrontation with edited and often unrealistic representations on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok can lead to increased comparison thinking, self -esteem problems and even depression. According to a study by Twenge and Martin (2018), the risk of depressive symptoms and anxiety in young people increases to social media for more than three hours a day.

Girls are particularly affected because they react more to social comparisons and can be easily influenced by perfectly staged images. A comparison becomes a constant companion, and self -esteem suffers because they cannot adapt their reality to these bogus worlds. Boys are also affected, but in other areas, such as the pressure to perform and the representation of "masculinity".

Character is also important:

A study shows that people with a high neurotic character who spend more than 300 minutes a day on social media have a high risk of developing depression than people with low neurotia. In addition, people with a high level of consent have a 49 percent lower risk of depression compared to people with low approval.

Social media increases problematic social comparisons, which can lead to an increase in negative feelings. This explains why the risk of depression grows with increasing social media use. In addition, negative content on these platforms mainly promote depressive moods and strengthening feelings of isolation. The intensive use of social media also reduces the time and opportunities for personal interactions and activities in real life, which can further affect mental health.

Cause or effect?

Another interesting aspect is the question of whether social media is rather the cause or the effect of depression. A study in the journal Jama Network Open Published, examined 5,395 adults of 56 years. The results show that users of platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat are more often affected by depression than people who do not use social media. However, it remains unclear whether social media actually causes depression or whether people who already have depressive tendencies are more likely to use social media. The researchers suspect that both factors can reinforce each other, which makes the psychological effects of social media complex and difficult to delimit.

2. A lack of differentiation and problematic content

Children and adolescents under the age of 16 often do not yet have fully developed differentiation. You cannot clearly distinguish between credible and questionable information, what you can succeed for Madelin information, propaganda and manipulated content might. According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, young people only achieve the ability to abstract and critical thinking at the age of around 16.

In addition, there are numerous dangers on social media platforms. Pornography, gambling and fraudulent content are just a few of the problematic areas that children can encounter. Not all parents are aware of these risks or have experience with social media, which makes it difficult to adequately protect their children. Many children get into dangerous situations without their parents noticing this.

3. Loss of time and lack of creativity

Another aspect that speaks against the use of social media in children is the enormous loss of time. The children spend hours scrolling through endless feeds, which loses valuable time for other activities, learning or social interactions. Studies show that children who use social media intensively are less creative because they lack the "boredom" that can promote creativity. If children are always entertained, there is no time when they could become creative and develop their own ideas.

Social media also activates the reward system in the brain, which leads to a kind of dependency. The fast and simple rewards from likes and comments are tempting for the human brain and difficult to replace with long -term but less immediate rewards. This phenomenon applies not only to children, but also to adults, which is why the problem is all the more worrying.

4. Inadequate and often irrelevant information

A large part of the content on social media platforms are "junk information"-content that is neither relevant nor valuable. This constant river of irrelevant information leads to overextress and prevents children from getting into meaningful and deeper topics. The "automation paradox" describes the fact that the constant availability of information decreases your knowledge and critical thinking, since the information is passively absorbed without questioning it.

5. Moral infection

What is moral infection?
Moral infection, also known as social infection, describes a phenomenon in which the behavior and attitudes of a person are influenced by the behavior and opinions of others in their environment. This influence can have positive, but also negative effects. In the context of the spread of fake news, moral contagion plays a rather problematic role, since people are often influenced by the opinions and actions of their friends and acquaintances and pay less attention to facts.

How does moral infection influence the spread of fake news?
The spread of fake news on social media is often a direct consequence of moral contagion. A typical example is the so -called confirmation error (Confirmation Bias), in which people tend to accept information that corresponds to their own beliefs. As a result, many people spread unchecked information if they fit their own opinions without checking them for their truth content.

The photo illustrates the effects of moral infection
This picture shows how moral contagion works: People tend to stay in their own opinion corner (bubble), while other opinions are left out. This shows how strong social media polarization contribute and how much you can remove us from an objective reality. Everyone lives in their own subjective reality in a way - and this increases enormously in social media.

6. Health effects through the excessive use of digital devices

In addition to the psychological effects, there are also serious health risks through the intensive use of digital devices:

  • Sleep disorders: Due to the blue light of the screens, the sleep hormone melatonin is suppressed, which disturbs the natural sleep-awake rhythm. This can lead to sleep problems, especially in young people. Not only the blue light, but artificial light in general can have a negative impact on sleep. According to the Harvard Medical School studies, blue light can delay the time of sleep by up to 3 hours, while normal artificial light causes a delay of about 1.5 hours. This is because blue light suppresses melatonin production in the body particularly strongly and thus disturbs the natural sleep-wax rhythm.
  • Lack of movement: The time before screens leads to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, which increases the risk of obesity, cardiovascular diseases and muscular problems.
  • Unhealthy eating habits: Long screen times are associated with an increase in the consumption of junk food, sugar -containing drinks, energy drinks and caffeine, which in turn can negatively influence health.

7. The "Always-on" lifestyle and stress

In our 24/7 society, the constant accessibility promotes an "always-on" lifestyle, which leads to stress and the feeling of always having to be available. This also applies to young people who are often under pressure to react to messages immediately or to always be up to date. This form of stress is reinforced by the lack of boundaries between leisure and digital world and can lead to burnout-like conditions.

According to a study by Zapf & Sommer (2004), chronic stress can indirectly lead to health problems, which can also be transferred to the excessive digital stress among young people.

8. Advantages & disadvantages

Although social media also offers advantages, especially for older users, they should not be overrated - especially in comparison to the disadvantages for young people under the age of 16. Platforms often promote creativity in older or younger users by creating pictures, videos and texts. In addition, supportive communities can help strengthen mental health, and social media offers valuable marketing opportunities for small and large companies. They also offer the opportunity to stay in touch with friends and family, to find out more about current topics and even to start careers. 

Nevertheless, these advantages do not weigh the considerable risks that social media for children and adolescents harbors. Especially for the younger generation, the negative effects on mental and physical health, the promotion of comparisons and the dependence on fast rewards are far more significant.

9. Challenges of regulation

However, the regulation of social media for children and adolescents also brings challenges. Many young people will try to avoid such restrictions, be it through fake age information or through access via the accounts of family members. Nevertheless, there are promising solutions and approaches to overcome these hurdles. Identification via official ID documents (ID) or special age verification systems could ensure, for example, that only access to the access is allowed to use certain content. Techniques for facial recognition or biometric age tests are also considered as potential tools. It will be crucial to develop well -thought -out measures that offer protection on the one hand and, on the other hand, respect the privacy of users.

10. Summary & research needs

Australia has taken a brave step to protect children from the negative effects of social media. The dangers are diverse and range from mental stress such as depression and low self -esteem to physical health problems. For children, social media carries the risk of losing comparisons and rewards in an endless cycle without developing a real basis for self -worth and creativity. Controlled handling of social media or even a ban on younger users can help promote the healthy development of children and to protect them from unnecessary risks.

It becomes clear that there is further research in order to comprehensively understand the complex influences of social media on mental health. Future studies should investigate which aspects of use are particularly harmful and what effective regulation could look like - both in terms of content and the daily useful life, which remains without greater dangers to mental health.

Adults are also not immune to the negative effects, which is why clear orientation and targeted measures would be necessary to prevent long -term damage. Such regulations could, for example, include age -appropriate restrictions and recommendations for a healthy screen time that minimize harmful effects for young people and adults.

Sources:

Written by Mara Schär

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