Ten-year-old children are ‘addicted to social media’

CHILDREN as young as ten are becoming dependent on social media for their sense of self-worth, a UK study warned.

It found many youngsters now measure their status by how much public approval they get online, often through ‘likes’. Some change their behaviour in real life to boost their image on the web.

The report into youngsters aged from eight to 12 was carried out by Britain’s Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield.

She said social media firms were exposing children to major emotional risks, with some youngsters starting secondary school ill-equipped to cope with the avalanche of pressure they faced online.

Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram were the most popular social networks for the children even though all three supposedly require users to be at least 13. The youngsters confessed to planning excursions around potential photo-opportunities and then messaging friends – and friends of friends – to demand ‘likes’ for their online posts. The report found that youngsters felt their friendships could be at risk if they did not respond to social media posts quickly, and around the clock.

Children aged eight to ten were ‘starting to feel happy’ when others liked their posts. However, those in the ten to 12 age group were ‘concerned with how many people like their posts’ suggesting a ‘need’ for social validation that gets more intense the older they become.

Last month a former Facebook boss claimed the social network’s ‘dopamine-driven feedback loops’ were ‘ripping apart the social fabric of how society works’. And ex-Facebook president Sean Parker said: ‘God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.’

Ms Longfield warned that a generation of children risked growing up ‘worried about their appearance and image as a result of the unrealistic lifestyles they follow on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, and increasingly anxious about switching off due to the constant demands of social media’. The study – Life In Likes – found that children as young as eight were using social media platforms such as Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram, largely for play.

However, the research – involving eight groups of 32 children aged eight to 12 – suggested that as they headed toward their teens, they became increasingly anxious online.

By the time they started secondary school – at age 11 – children were already far more aware of their image online and felt under huge pressure to ensure their posts were popular online, the report found.

However, they still did not know how to cope with mean-spirited jokes, or the sense of inadequacy they might feel if they compared themselves to others. Ms Longfield said schools and parents must now do more to prepare children for the emotional minefield they faced online. And she said social media companies must also ‘take more responsibility’ and police their websites better so that children do not sign up too early, or tailor their websites to the needs of younger users.