With time passing, social media have become a big part of teens’ lives. A survey conducted in 2018 shows that 97% of 13- to 17-years-olds use social media and 45% of them are always online, and almost 97% of them use social media. Teenage is a phase of life where the kids are exploring themselves, and they want to participate in adventures to discover more of the world. Social media, on the other hand, let them stay within a confined box of thoughts if they aren’t involved in healthy online activities. Most of the teens post a lot about their personal life on social media platforms, which many times get them in trouble. According to the counted digits,
- 53% of girls talk about their family on social media
- 40% of them talk about their emotions and relationships.
Let’s do an old-school pros and cons analysis of social media:
Benefits of social media
Social media serves as a big community where teens can share their thoughts and work. It can help them make an impact on society. It can help in spreading awareness about an issue. It provides a chance for the kids to speak up according to their beliefs. Social media gives them a voice that more people can hear.
With these platforms, your kids can know the news of the world and not just in their communities. They can provide help and support to the people who are far away from them. Social media also serves as a way to reduce isolation and loneliness. According to research, technology and social media have played a part in teens feeling less lonely.
Harms of Social media
One of the most dangerous harms of social media is cyberbullying. You don’t know what your kid is going through in their head because of all the online bullying. Your child’s insecurities are easily accessible with all the information that they post on their social media platforms. Anyone can use these insecurities to hurt them or blackmail them.
Another effect of social media that can bring out a vulnerable side of your kid in comparison. They start comparing their lives with others. Social media is a place to show off their wealth and talents. Lots of people try to make their lives more fun and exciting when it comes to showing it off on the internet. Teenagers can develop a sense of comparison, looking at all these made-up lives.
Social media can harm the daily life of a teenager. Anxiety, Jealousy, loneliness, low self-esteem, dependence, and lack of socializing skills, are a few more negative effects of excessive social media use.
How can you protect your child?
If you want to protect your child from the dangers of social media, monitoring them is the most common and useful way. Monitoring apps like XNPSY can help you track your child’s online activities. You can keep tabs on your teens’ social media apps, know where they are and who they are spending time with, and much more using this monitoring app.
How is it useful?
XNSPY offers a wide range of features that lets you monitor your kid’s activities both online and in the real world. Some of the features include:
- Internet Activity Tracking
If your child is using the internet to explore inappropriate content such as violence, pornography, or other age-appropriate websites, XNSPY can help you track it. You can check the online browsing history along with the time duration of each website. You can also check the bookmarked pages. This way, you can ensure if your kid is using the internet in the right manner.
- Social media Apps Monitoring
The most useful feature of this parental monitoring app is this one. It lets you track all of the activities on social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and many others. You can track all of the messages; sent or received, you can view all of the shared pictures or videos, and most importantly, you can monitor their every keystroke. This way, you can ensure that no one is bullying them, and they are away from any online predators.
- Call/SMS tracking
XNSPY lets you track every call and message that your child comes across. You can monitor all their voice calls, such as incoming, outgoing, and missed, along with the duration of each call. The advanced features also let you record particular calls. In the same way, you can check all the messages, even on instant messaging apps, like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Kik, and others.
- GPS Location tracking
Another useful feature that XNSPY provides is the location tracking feature. Suppose your child decides to go out without informing you. This feature will help you know the real-time location of their phone. You can track their GPS location and make sure that they are safe.
- Watchlist alerts
One of the more advanced features of this monitoring app is its watch list alerts. It provides you different watch list to add certain words, locations, or contacts related to your child that concern you. The app will send you direct alerts if any related activity happens.
- Remote controls
If you want to remove or block some specific social media apps from their phone, you can do that using the remote controls. This feature lets you control the phone without any physical access to it. You can capture screenshots, listen to their surroundings, or even lock their phone or specific apps.
