Cell Phones and Teenagers-a report by Tyson Fey

I’m going to talk about the dangers of social media and if children under a certain age should have a phone.

So first I’m going to talk about what Kapersky.com said. The fact that Snapchat can be used for sexting is just worrying. I’m thirteen years old and I have a phone that has Snapchat on it, and I don’t want to become a victim of sexting. Sexting is a very big thing that is used around the world, it is disgusting, weird, and most of all inappropriate. Isn’t it weird that all social media can be used for sexting? Why don’t the makers of whatever program just make something that when you take a picture of something inappropriate it deletes it immediately. In my personal opinion sexting is very dangerous.

Some of the reasons are:

-          -  Sexting can cause harm to people

-          -  It can make them make do stuff they don’t want/aren’t supposed to do

Why I think it can cause harm to people is because, if they look at a picture of some ones “thing” it can be stuck in their mind for a very long time.

 It can make people do stuff that they don’t want/aren’t supposed to do.

-        -  Have sex at a young age

-        -  Look at porn

-         - There is peer pressure

      

      Why I say look at porn is because they will want to see more inappropriate things, after they look at a picture of some ones “thing.”

      

      There is also peer pressure, like if some girls are taking pics of themselves half naked you might feel you need to do the same, because you think I’m going to lose my friends.

      Now what Go Pro Dad said

-          - Can be used for cyber bullying

Cyber bullying is a big thing. It can cause people to kill themselves, do weird stuff etc. Cyber bullying is very dangerous. It is a big threat to us. People can send you bad messages and tell you mean stuff, so don’t add anyone that you don’t know. Cyber bullying is something used for very bad purposes. People say that words can hurt more than a sword or dagger, that is bullying for you. 

 I used to get bullied in school, it was the worst. I hated it, but I kept on getting bullied. But cyber bullying is different than regular bullying, because it starts with one little thing then everybody participates, and it can end up going nationwide. Someone can get one of your pictures and mess around with it, in the end you are a totally different person {in the picture}.

There is another thing that I saw on Go Pro Dad, that Snapchat can sell/redistribute your videos. Now that is a very bad thing, because if you send a nude video to someone and it goes away Snapchat has access to that video no matter what. Let’s say that you post a video, and you put in your location, someone can see that and find you and kidnap you.

The last thing that I’m going to talk about is my opinion on should children under 15 have a phone. I think it’s okay. But there are other people that have different answers. Some people said yes and some said no.

Some reasons that phones are useful:

- kids might need a phone for school

- if there is an emergency and parents are not around

- for listening to music

Even though there are dangers, parents can do the following to help prevent them:

-supervise their children while they are on their phones

-set time limits

-block certain websites

-have a password for the wi-fi

If parents help children use their phones responsibly, then kids can have fun with their phones and also stay safe. I know that some parents would still say no to this. I do agree that if you have a phone you will always want to go on it, because that is what it’s like for me.