Outline for this persuasive essay

With the push of a button, you can send anything out for the world to see. The saying goes socialmedia lasts forever. That said, I do not believe children under 13 who are easily impressionable should be on social media. Social media is becoming more accessible to kids. As an Avent social media user, I am worried about the children on social media and what they witness. Take for example "straight Tik Tok" where the majority of the content are shirtless grown men grinding into their phones with the majority of their audience being 12-year-old girls. There are several reasons why I believe that children under the age of 13 should not be on social media like Instagram and Tic Tok. First the lack of physical social interactment. The lack of social skills and engagement in 'real-life' will influence them negatively. There are also a lot of known threats online pedo's and people who cyber bully. After reading my argument, my audience will be persuaded to believe that children under the age of 13 should not be on social media.

Children can be mentally affected by social media due to the lack of social skills and interaction in 'real-life.' Studies show that children on social media at an early age show signs of behavioral problems. Social media websites are also known to affect their social skills as most kids would rather text or dm than have a face-to-face conversation. Even facetime is more preferred than having a face-to-face conversation because it has a barrier. If kids communicate primarily through the screen, they do not learn how to interpret real life communication -- such as body language and tone of voice. There are many reasons as to why social media websites have age restrictions and if this is how it mentally affects children then I personally feel they should be enforced. Social media can be dangerous. Privacy is a main concern to anyone online and children often don't understand the risks involved with giving out too much personal information. From putting your high school in your bio, or just plainly sharing personal information.

From putting your high school in your bio, or just plainly sharing personal information. Children are not always fully capable of seeing and understanding the consequences of their actions. Being naive is one of the reasons children are often targeted online. Personally, I believe this is the main reason as to why young children should not be given access to social networking sites. According to Jimit Bagadiya from Social Pilot, some of these popular social media sites attract millions and up to billions around the world (309 Social Media Statistics You Must Know In 2020). Tik Tok lead teens to the finding of 2 dead bodies off the side of a seashore. Now imagine if it were kids to find that body because they wanted to participate in a trend.

Now lets talk about one of the worse things to come from the internet, troll accounts. For the most part they spread hate and gaslight people. Some children have taken it upon themselves to get behind the screen and cyber bully others. Which is perhaps the most common form of bullying in this day and age. Pre covid, In the old days it was "On site" you have a problem you fight it out (not to say that was a tangible solution) but now bullying will follow you home for day to come. According to the Cyberbullying Research Centre "about half of young people have experienced some form of cyberbullying, and 10 to 20 percent experience it regularly". Many children have to deal with at-school bullying as well as at home. From rumors to hurtful comments. Unfortunately, the rise in cyberbullying has also seen the rise in the number of suicides and attempted suicides in children according to the Bully Statistics website. The statistics on bullying and suicide are alarming, "Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year...

For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts". Just recently a new article was published "Schoolboy, 12, dies 'playing TikTok suicide challenge and in January an 11-year-old boy tried to kill himself because he falsely interpreted the "KAM" trend. People must understand and see the connection between social media sites and bullying and realize that it can get so bad that children as young as nine will take their own life to stop their suffering. This is another important reason why young children should not be allowed on social media. Remember the results of this runoff election depends on us, therefore we must educate voters about the Senate candidates, raise the level of resources to reach the state of Colorado, and protect the people's right to vote. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter play a huge part in our lives, with almost 1.4 billion of us using them each day. There are many reasons as to why I believe young children should not be allowed on these sites. They can be mentally affected due to the lack of social skills and interaction in 'real-life.' Children face many dangers online such as grooming by pedophiles whom they cannot protect themselves from. Cyber-bullying is also, unfortunately, another reason children should stay away from these sites. We are forced to grow up very early, and I believe children should not have to worry about the before mentioned things, they should be able to just be children.