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Teenagers in Britain are fortunate to have access to computers, laptops and smartphones from an early age. A child in the UK receives a smartphone at around the age of 12 among the earliest in Europe. The natural consequence of this is that children spend a significant amount of their time on the internet.

Nearly 20 years or so since the first social networks appeared on the internet, there has been considerable research into their psychological, societal and health effects. While these have often been seen as largely negative over the years, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.

A recent report from the Education Policy Institute, for example, studied childrens use of the internet and their mental health. The report found that teenagers value social networks as a way of connecting with friends and family, maintaining their networks of friends, and long distance connections. Teenagers see social networking as a comfortable medium for sharing their issues and finding solutions to problems such as social isolation and loneliness. They are also more likely to seek help in areas such as health advice, unknown experiences, and help with exams and study techniques.

Social networks afford the opportunity to find people with similar interests, or to support teamwork in school projects. In unsettled economic and political times, teenagers use social networks as a means to be heard and to get involved in political activism, as well as volunteering and charitable activities.

Teenagers also leverage social networks to engage with creative projects, and many young artists are first noticed through the exposure offered by the rich networking opportunities of social media, such as musicians on MySpace or photographers on image-sharing sites Flickr or Behance. Teenagers looking to pursue careers in art or other creative industries turn to social platforms in order to create their portfolios as well as to create with others.

These opportunities have a positive impact on adolescent character formation and the development of their individual identity, and helps them toward choosing a career path. These choices are made at an early age and to this end social networks are enriching young peoples lives.

Risks not to be ignored

On the other hand the report was able to list a substantial list of negative influences stemming from social media use, ranging from time wasting and addictive, compulsive use, to cyber-bullying, radicalisation, stress and sexual grooming to name just a few.

Unsurprisingly, governments are concerned with the impact of social networking on the vulnerable. Concern over the uncontrolled nature of social networking has prompted action from parents and politicians. The issue of children roaming freely on social networks became an issue in the recent UK general election, and was mentioned in the Conservative Party manifesto, which made a key pledge of safety for children online, and new rights to require social media companies to delete information about young people as they turn 18. This is a tall order, as it would require erasing tens of millions of teenagers profiles on about 20 different social platforms, hosted in different countries worldwide.

The Conservatives also suggested the party would create a power in law for government to introduce an industry-wide levy from social media companies and communication service providers to support awareness and preventative activity to counter internet harms. Awareness-raising is an important step towards encouraging conscious social media use among the young. But despite continuing efforts to educate youngsters about the dangers (and, to be fair, the benefits) of using social media, many are wary of the impact technology may have on overly social teenagers once outside parental control.

It has been shown that teenagers increasingly use social networks in private, leaving parents outside environments where children are exposed to real-time content and largely unguarded instant communications. The concern raised in the report that responses to protect, and build resilience in, young people are inadequate and often outdated is timely. While schools are tasked with educating teenagers about the risks of social media, very few parents are able to effectively introduce controls on the content their children access and monitor the evolving threats that operate online.

Speak their language

A recent study of compulsive social media use showed that it is not the users age that matters, but their individual motivations. In fact, users who are highly sociable and driven by friends towards compulsive social media use suffer physically and socially. On the other hand, when users are driven by hedonic (fun-seeking) motivations, their physical health and sociability improves. This explains why teenagers in the UK see social networking as a positive phenomenon that enriches their social life. There is clearly potential to harness these positives.

While the tech giants that run the social networks with billions of users must play their part to ensure the safety of their youngest users, it is also parents role to talk openly with their children about their use of social networks and demand expected standards of use. Teenagers have questions about life and are looking for answers to their problems as they go through a challenging time of life.

With the Prime Minister naming mental health as a key priority schools, parents, politicians and social networking platforms should help teenagers to build resilience to what they encounter online and how it makes them feel, rather than adopting only a safeguarding approach. Its interesting to note that 78 per centof young people who contact the organisation Childline now do so online: teachers, family and friends providing support should make the most of a medium with which todays children and teenagers are comfortable.

Vladlena Benson is an associate professor, department of accounting, finance and informatics, Kingston University. This article was originally published on The Conversation (www.theconversation.com)

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Social media genie won't go back in the bottle, so we must teach youngsters to use it wisely - The Independent

For some, social media networks are nothing more than a fun way to pass the time. But for others, they can become an addiction. This unhealthy behavior can take a toll on families. Thats what lead one Colombian teenager to seek treatment.

CGTNs Michelle Begue reports from Bogota.

Seventeen-year-old Andrea Barrios stayed up till 3:30 in the morning on her cell phone. For Barrios, conversations through social media sites, like Facebook and messaging apps, were the only way to communicate.

I became supremely intolerant, and impatient, she explained. I stopped interacting with my family.

Barrios realized she needed help when she began to feel insecurities that were amplified by social networking. She voluntarily sought a month- long treatment at a Colombian foundation. The Criar Foundation treats a range of addictions, from drugs and alcohol, to social media technology.

Last year, data research group eMarketer estimated there were 2.34 billion social network users worldwide. That was an increase from 2015. There are no statistics on how many of those users are addicted to networking sites, but there are studies on these sites mental health impact on youth.

The child who is addicted to social networks has a fractured self esteem, which means if they arent finding attention from their family life, they look for it in social networks, psycologistCamila Quinones of the Criar Foundation explained.

According to Quinones, treating social network addiction is different from other substances because of its popular use in modern society.

In the case of drug addiction it is different, because you can take away that substance more easily. But in a Colombian middle class society, almost everyone has internet. That makes it very difficult to abstain,Quinones said.

After a month-long rehabilitation, the challenge for patients like Barrios will be to follow the limits set on social networking use. For now, she said she doesnt feel the immediate urge.

I feel peace now, Ive come to realize I dont need a cellphone to live, she said.

Doctors have said prevention of abuse and healthy coping strategies may be the wisest way to move forward from social media addiction.

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Colombian teen seeks out treatment to combat social media addiction - CGTN America (blog)

Social Networking Sites: Adding a New Dimension to Relations TIS Staffer 4/8/2017 7:47:16 PM

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Social networking sites that came into existence with great welcome by the people world over have given birth to new kinds of social relations and interactions that were never seen before. In todays world, if you dont have a Facebook/Twitter account or any other social networking sites account you may be tagged as backward and dubbed as being one who has not been able to keep pace with time. Somehow it has penetrated the peoples mind so much that having an account in social networking sites has become as essential as having your home address. It has not only fascinated younger generation but its charm can be found among all age groups.

Sharing ones mundane things is so common now a days and it is like a daily meeting online with different people and throwing open your personal life like anything which also comes for public scrutiny. Even people update their bad mood or illness and wait to know how many people liked it and how many comments it generated about your new status. You may not get opportunity to see your cousins child but you can see him or her growing online. Networking sites have provided a stage of sharing your personal feelings which were so personal earlier to highlight before others. In a way emotions are getting more public and a thing to be shared openly going beyond the boundary line of private and public sphere of sharing.

It has widened the personal sharing and has opened it for others to feel and interact. The face to face relationship is getting transformed into on-line relationships. It can be taken as further step in the secondary relations. New norms and values of sharing have been introduced by these social networking sites. We are heading towards a very dialectical kind of personality. On one hand we are getting more and more reserved and professional in our interactions but at the very same time we are more open and personal while interacting with our online friends. People are getting more and more conscious about their online impression management. They are now more conscious about their way of interaction and presentation of their feelings. They react the way they are driven by norms of social media. In some way it has become functional by enhancing the field of personal expressions. But sometimes pouring personal feelings before others may land one in trouble, causing mental frustration and depression.

The feelings and emotions are being channelized in different ways. There can be found a new kind of grouping that was never seen before, one can discover various fans clubs, people liking a particular party, brand or religious group. Social Networking sites in a way have become a platform which is uniting people on different issues. In the past ban on some social networking sites has exposed its potential to influence and mobilize people in todays world. In any major change or movement in future the role of these social networking sites cannot be neglected in mobilization and publicity. These sites are going to prove a major weapon of uniting and provoking people on any issue.

On the other hand it has driven people in an unrealistic world of happenings. People spend hours on sites just updating their status or sharing information and it seems that the gap between personal and private life has now narrowed to some extent. These online meetings have reduced to some extent the virtual dialogues in everyday life, making online friends more important than those we encounter with in our day to day life. We have started living a life that is far away from virtual one.

We live in an alienated and unreal world of incidents, though we think now we are more connected but actually we are getting disconnected from real life. The culture of expressing oneself in a particular way has fascinated young generation to such an extent that they try to pose themselves in different ways, guided by reactions and comments on their posts. No doubt these sites have affected our life in many ways but still there are some aspects which would unveil themselves with growing time. Let us be ready to see more faces of Facebook and other social networking sites.

(Dr. Supriya Singh who did her Ph.D. in social science from Lucknow University is a Guest Faculty in the Centre for Globalization and Development Studies, University of Allahabad. Views expressed here are personal.)

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Social Networking Sites: Adding a New Dimension to Relations - The India Saga (blog)

Facebook's (NASDAQ:FB) core business is thriving, with strong engagement for the company's namesake social network and its Instagram subsidiary driving impressive top- and bottom-line growth. Here's a look at how the momentum from the company's social networks translated to earnings performance last quarter:

Data source: Facebook.

With Facebook having since passed 2 billion monthly active users and management indicating that ad placement on the social network is near a saturation point, growth could be more difficult to deliver going forward, but the company is hardly resting on its laurels. The leader in social networking is working on initiatives that have the potential to create huge benefits for its core products and open up new business avenues down the line.

Image source: Facebook.

From the invention of the television through the rise of the mobile phone, the screen has been at the center of the information age, but dramatic changes for display technology could be on the horizon. Virtual reality (VR) got its first big commercial push in 2016 and currently has niche appeal, but Facebook is betting on the technology's potential and angling to play a leading role in bringing it to the mainstream. The social media giant's virtual reality push is probably the company's most well-known innovation investment, with its $3 billion acquisition of VR company Oculus generating lots of press and evidencing a clear enthusiasm for display innovation.

Facebook's Oculus Rift headset has gotten off to a somewhat disappointing start, with the device receiving a number of price cuts following weaker-than-expected sales and trailing HTC's competing Vive hardware, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reiterated a belief in VR as the next big computing platform and has his company working on a range of hardware and content initiatives that could lay foundations for the future of the tech.

Facebook Spaces; Image source: Facebook.

The company recently launched Facebook Spaces, a platform that allows users to create an avatar to hangout and share pictures and video in virtual chat rooms. It also recently partnered with Samsung for the release of the Facebook 360 app, bringing the social network's panoramic photo and video content to the Gear VR platform.

In 2016, Facebook committed a $250 million investment in VR content, and Zuckerberg has indicated that his company plans to invest an additional $3 billion over the next decade to improve VR and drive adoption. The company also has plans to develop augmented reality (AR) offerings far beyond the filters currently available on Instagram, stating in its most recent earnings call that it plans to invest aggressively in content and infrastructure to build its position in AR. These technologies have the potential to change the way the world sees and interacts with information, and, if they take off, they'll open up innovations opportunities in industries ranging from retail to healthcare.

Image source: Internet.org.

Facebook is working to bring free (or at least low-cost) internet to the world, a move that will dramatically expand its addressable market -- and one that could threaten internet service providers (ISPs) and wireless carriers. The company recently launched Express Wi-Fi, a partnership project with a group of ISPs in Africa and Asia to expand the reach of connectivity, and it's got even more ambitious plans in the works. Here's a Zuckerberg quote from Facebook's most recent earnings call about the progress the company is making with its internet-beaming airplane project:

On the connectivity side, in April we successfully simultaneously beamed 16 gigabits of data in each direction between a location on the ground and a Cessna aircraft circling more than 7 km away. Eventually, we're going to use this technology along with Aquila, our solar-powered plane we're building, to beam internet to parts of the world that currently don't have access.

The company is also working on delivering internet by satellite. Of the roughly 7.5 billion people on Earth, roughly 3.7 billion are currently connected to the internet, so expanding the reach of network connectivity presents Facebook with huge growth opportunities.

Building its position in the telecommunications field gives Facebook ways to sidestep data cap and throttling issues the company faces from international ISPs as well as domestic providers including Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast -- issues that could become more pronounced as the social network makes streaming video content a bigger part of its platform. For now, Facebook's efforts are concentrated on making the internet more globally accessible, but, in the long term, growing its provider capabilities could make it significantly less dependent on today's telecom leaders.

Image source: Facebook.

Facebook is also aiming to shakeup the network hardware space, and has been distributing designs for "white box" alternatives and partnering with manufactures to make them available for enterprise. These are made with non-proprietary parts and run on open-source software, and pose a significant threat to networking companies including Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Juniper Networksbecause they offer levels of flexibility and customization beyond products from the current industry leaders. They also have the potential to dramatically reduce pricing power for routing, switching, and data center.

Increases in video streaming and the use of VR and AR technologies will put added pressure on data centers and increase costs for businesses. Facebook has an interest in facilitating these technologies, and reducing the expenses associated with networking hardware has the potential to remove a central roadblock to their progression. Lowering the costs of network infrastructure is also likely to play a big role in bringing internet connectivity to areas that are currently without it, so it's a disruptive initiative that could have huge payoff and pave the way for the evolution of the social network.

Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook and Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool recommends Cisco Systems. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Beyond the Social Network: Facebook Wants to Disrupt These 3 Industries - Motley Fool

The Union Government is contemplating to regulate the functioning of social networking sites to ensure safety of the users' data.

The Central Government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it is contemplating to enact regulatory regime for social networking sites or services like Whatsapp, Facebook, Skype and others.

The Centre made these submissions before the five-judge Constitution Bench that is hearing WhatsApp privacy policy case.

The Centre told that personal data of users is a part of their right to life and it can't be shared freely by telecom providers or any social network sites.

Any attack on data is an attack on 'Right to Life', the Centre told the apex court.

During the hearing before a five-judge Constitution Bench, the bench asked the government whether it would regulate data.

Counsel for WhatsApp and Facebook, senior lawyers Kapil Sibal, Sidharth Luthra and Arvind Datar, said that they were willing to give an undertaking before the bench that WhatsApp has not and will not share data with anyone.

A nine-judge Supreme Court Constitution bench is also hearing various issues relating to right to privacy and data protection arising out of question whether whether Aadhaar violates right to privacy or not.

This bench is to rule whether right to privacy is a fundamental right or not, and other contours relating to data protection.

A nine-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar is examining the nature of privacy as a right in context of two judgments -the first in 1954, the other in 1962 - which held that privacy was not a fundamental right. (ANI)

Link:
Govt Planning to Regulate Social Networking Sites to Ensure Safety of Users' Data - Outlook India