Is Social Media Causing Childhood Depression?

Rangan Chatterjee , a GP says "I have seen plenty of evidence of the link between mental ill-health in youngsters and their use of social media."

He told that, once a teen (age of 16 year) boy was referred to him because of self harming.
After talking with him he found that he was over using social media's. And this was causing negative impact on him.

After that Dr Rangan Chatterjee thought of a solution. He asked the boy not to use social media an hour in the mrning as well as before the bed.Later on he asked to extend the time to two hours i.e 2 hours in the morning and before the bed.

He was getting well,Six months later,Dr Chatterjee got a letter from that boy's mother saying "he was happier at school and integrated into the local community."

He is not the only guy with such problem. Lot's of children nowadays are facing such problems. And most of them end up harming themselves , break their phones just to get relief from irritating messages.

Some child welfare experts from the US Sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg , CEO/Founder Of Facebook to close down the Messenger Kids App. Such apps urges children to use messaging apps. Such apps are causing problem to the young girls. Their images are being misused.

According to the study of 2017 by The Royal Society of Public Health, it was found that Instagram,Snap chat,Facebook increases the anxiety. While YouTube had a very good positive influence.

"In the last fortnight I have had two children request extra appointments because of online bullying," - Dr Theodosiou (through BBC)

So the main or important question is:

What can we/parents do to prevent childern depression?

• Set a specific time for your children to get online. Make sure social media don't interfere with their daily activities.
• Ban Smartphones/Gaming consoles at mealtimes.
• Don't let them use such devices an hour before bedtime.
• Get access to their passwords and regularly check what they are doing online.

Though Social Media's Like Facebook, Instagram , Twitter don't let children under 13 years old to create account on them, children are creating account by choosing the wrong birth date.

Lastly, Encourage your children to interact with friends and families instead of spending time online. Ask them to play outside on playgrounds instead of letting them to play video games. Teach them to use internet in a proper way.

I'm also a teenager. I used to spend my time on Facebook before but nowadays i write my views and share my experience here on steemit. And i don't have to spend the whole time here.

Encourage teenagers to use Steemit Instead of Facebook,Instagram as Steemit is a great platform for them to share their ideas,views and learn a lot of things.

Reference: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42705881
Picture Credit: https://pixabay.com
Icon Credit: Vexels

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