Among the legally sanctioned addictions of our society, such as nicotine and gambling, social media has been added to the list. Social media was originally an enjoyable distraction, but alarm bells, litigation, and government regulations are now shining a harsh light on the addictive and harmful effects of social media, and especially on children and young adults.

Australia has banned social media, described as “behavioural cocaine,” for anyone under the age of 16 (https://tinyurl.com/4dxu6nmu), and other countries are considering a similar ban. Last month a Los Angeles jury awarded a young woman, identified as K.G.M. or “Kaley,” $6 million in damages in her suit against Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, and YouTube, owned by Google. She asserted that these platforms used intentionally addictive design features leading to her childhood addiction to social media and lasting mental health issues (https://tinyurl.com/ynwyaa6b).

An adult is largely responsible for their own choices regarding social media, but a parent or adult with parental responsibilities should take steps to counter the threat of a child becoming addicted to social media. Unfortunately, this process has the potential for family strife, loss of trust, and the invasion of privacy.

The first step should be a conversation with a child to ascertain the social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, the child is using and for how long each day. Ideally you could establish some limits and “quiet times” away from technology and the internet. The KidsHealth website has excellent advice about talking to kids about good social media habits and how to avoid obsessive internet use (https://tinyurl.com/ymvcjvv8)

If necessary, the next step is to employ readily available software settings to monitor and perhaps enforce social media “rules” and precautions. Most young people access social media on a smartphone or tablet and both Apple and Android devices have parental controls built in.

Every iPad or iPhone contains Apple’s Screen Time and can be turned on by the parent. It will protect kids from unsafe content on the internet while using the Safari browser, control which apps are used and for how long, restrict purchases, and enforce time outs. When coupled with Family Sharing on the parent’s Apple device, all the child’s activity can be monitored and controlled remotely and the device’s location at any time can be tracked, which can be reassuring when the child is away from home. The internet Matters website has detailed instructions (https://tinyurl.com/mu5jy94s)

Google’s Android devices have parental controls that can be set up on the child’s device and with the free Google Family Link app on your device you can manage several children’s devices and track them remotely. Internet Matters has a comprehensive guide (https://tinyurl.com/46ztjpx9).

However, these are not substitutes for good parental supervision. Unsafe websites are only blocked in the default Safari browser on an Apple device or the Google Chrome browser on Android, and you won’t be able to see posts or messages that your kids are reading or posting on social media accounts.

For deep monitoring and blocking on a child’s device, there are specialized and often expensive apps. One of the best is Qustodio which uses AI to read and either allow or block posts and keep an eye on your child’s social media and internet behaviour. It’s about $160 Cdn annually for a premium plan for any number of devices and will provide a written summary of a youngster’s online activities. However, be aware that a child will know that monitoring software is running in the background which is imposing restrictions and essentially spying on them, and that can cause serious problems about trust and put many teens in full rebellion mode.

Even if you decide not to use Qustodio, it has a tremendously informative and well-written set of guides and information about social media at its Digital Well-being blog site (https://www.qustodio.com/en/blog/). For a depressing look into an aspect of male teen culture, read the details about the manosphere (https://tinyurl.com/48spn9nn).

No matter what tact you take, you should start sooner rather than later to protect your kids or grandchildren from the potential physical and mental harms of social media.

Links in this column and others are available at www.rayser.ca/online and I can be reached at rayser3@cogeco.ca.

© Peterborough Examiner