Social comparison can hurt kids' mental health, while social media apps are designed to encourage excessive use. Read more at straitstimes.com.
SINGAPORE – Establishing tech-free periods, tracking screen time and modelling responsible social media behaviour are some of the steps that parents take to protect young people from the potential perils of social media.
Meanwhile, they are exposed to harmful content on social media, ranging from violent and sexual content to bullying and harassment. For too many children, social media use compromises their sleep and valuable in-person time with family and friends, he said in a statement accompanying the advisory. However, inappropriate content and excessive use can harm. Adolescents aged 12 to 15 who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of poor mental health, including experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety.
At the same time, push notifications, autoplay, infinite scroll and display of popularity using the “like” button, as well as other features of social media platforms often designed to maximise user engagement, can encourage excessive use and behavioural dysregulation.A lack of access to data from tech firms has been a barrier to understanding the full scope and scale of the impact of social media on child and adolescent mental health and well-being, it added.
In Singapore, cyber wellness and mental health are part of the Character and Citizenship Education curriculum in primary and secondary schools. “Schools will continue to work with parents and community groups to guide our students to cultivate good digital habits and use digital technology safely and responsibly.”However, a secondary school teacher in charge of implementing the CCE curriculum noted that while students are repeatedly taught about the risks of social media and how to manage them, there is no yardstick to assess the effectiveness of these lessons and how they impact students’ consumption of social media.
Dr Chong, who co-chaired the screen use expert subgroup that advised MOH on the advisory, said: “We hope that this will primarily start a shift in parental knowledge, and a reflection by parents on the home front about our relationship with screens – the good and the bad – and to help parents understand the dual dimensions of it.”
“It also brings up a whole new dimension of how difficult it is to shape moral behaviours for our children in this digital age – where parents have little control over what their children are exposed to without themselves understanding what may be potentially harmful,” she said. “The crux of the matter is how it is used. Youth are often concerned about portraying their best image both in real life and on social media,” said Mr Poh.
Younger users may have less self-control, and the earlier they are exposed to social media without parental supervision or controls, the higher the likelihood that they might get addicted to its use, he said.
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