Parents, get your children off the internet
Kaylee McGhee White
It is not a coincidence that increased online access and internet dependence have been accompanied by a growth in mental health woes. Children are especially vulnerable to the internet’s most pernicious side effects, as several recent studies show.
Just this week, for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a record number of teenage girls face depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. Nearly 3 in 5 girls said they feel persistently sad or hopeless — the highest levels we’ve seen in the past decade. Teenage boys, too, experienced an increase from 21% in 2011 to 29% in 2021.
“America’s teen girls are engulfed in a growing wave of sadness, violence and trauma. Over the past decade, teens especially girls have experienced dramatic increases in experiences of violence and poor mental health and suicide risk,” said Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer and its deputy director for program and science.
It’s normal for young girls to experience social anxiety and confusion as they mature. But this unprecedented spike in despair is undoubtedly tied to the internet’s presence in their lives. Whatever social comparison young girls normally struggle with is exacerbated by social media sites such as Instagram or Snapchat. Even Instagram’s parent company, Meta, admitted it has data proving that heavy use of Instagram causes young girls to feel insecure and unhappy.
And yet, the average age at which children are opening their own social media accounts nowadays is 12, with 45% of teenagers saying they are online “almost constantly.”
Parents, one of the best possible ways to protect your children’s well-being is to take their smartphones away and throw them in the trash.
No social media, no internet — at least not until they’ve reached an age when they’re mentally capable of understanding and handling the internet’s consequences. Someday, they’ll thank you for it.