HANOI UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

WRITING TERM 4 - RESEARCH ESSAY

Topic: Should parents monitor their children's activities on

social media platforms ?

STUDENTS' NAME : NGUYỄN THỊ MAI ẢNH

NGUYỄN HỮU BÍNH
CLASS : 5A -19
LECTURER/SUPERVISOR : ĐẶNG HOÀNG ANH THƯ

Hanoi June 8th 2021

 OUTLINE
Introduction:
- Thesis statement: Parents should monitor their children’s activities on social media
platforms.
Body:
1. Protect their children's personal information (Emagination Computer Camps, 2016).
+ Teens are sharing more information about themselves on social media sites (Stoilova,
Livingstone & Nandagiri, 2019).
+ Children do not have enough understanding about personal privacy (Madden et al .,
2013).
+ ALL social media sell user information (Leetaru, 2018).
2. Parents assist their children in maintaining and developing social skills
(Sampathirao, 2016).
+ The use of digital communication extensively can curtail the face-to-face experiences
necessary for children to develop and master important social skills (Giedd, 2012).
+ Communication on social networks is not as efficient as face-to-face contact (Corporate
Media Services, 2012).
3. Parents safeguard and assist their children against cyberbullying (Thompson, 2018).
+ More childrens have experienced cyberbullying on social media (Johnson, 2021).

+ Cyberbullying threatens the safety and security of teens (Mintz, 2019)

4. Counter argument and refutation:
Counter argument: It is an easy way to communicate children with the world
(MacArthur Foundation,2020).
Refutation:
+ The world on social media sites is not a true and real world (Jazayeri, 2016).
+ Children feel less happy about the world around them when using social media sites
(Tumbokon, 2020).
+ Children meet a range of risks on the internet relating to communication: risky
behaviour, giving out personal information online (Livingstone & Helsper, 2007).
Conclusion:
+ It's important for parents to track their children's online behavior on social media
platforms.
 Using social media websites is among the most common activities of today's children

and adolescents (O'Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011). According to American Academy of Child

and Adolescent Psychiatry, the percentage of children using social media at the age 13-17 is

estimated to be over 90% globally in 2018. Over the years, various empirical studies have been

conducted on the issue of the negative influences of social media sites on children (Greenfield,

2009; British Psychological Society, 2015 & University of Montreal, 2019). Only when this issue

receives special attention from parents will their children have a comprehensive development.

This paper argues that social media platforms have a number of negative effects on children, and

thus prompting parents to monitor their children's online activities.

To begin with, a critical reason for parents to monitor their children's behaviors on social

media platforms is that it safeguards their children's personal information. A study about

relationships among teens, sociality, and privacy imitated that teens on social media sites release

more details about themselves than in the past (Madden et al., 2013). This research also reveals

that teens using social media tend to share their real names, personal hobbies, date of birth,

relationship status and their videos (2013). Nevertheless, children have insufficient personal

privacy (Stoilova, Livingstone & Nandagiri, 2019). There is an alarming fact that all social

media sites sell user information legally (Leetaru, 2018) . Therefore, all the user's activities on a

website or app connecting with social networks will be automatically shared (Beckett, 2012).

With a view to protecting their children's personal information, parents should supervise the

actions of their kids on social media platforms.

Parents, from a different perspective, should restrict their children’s use of social media

platforms in order to prevent youngsters’ limitations on important social skills. According to

Rogers (2019), teens in the United States spend an average of more than seven hours per day
watching screen media for entertainment. In fact, when teenagers spend time on social media, it

takes time away from face-to-face communication and in-person activities with their families and

friends (Giedd, 2012; Nie & Erbring, 2000). Moreover, Lapakko (2007) concluded that only 7%

of communication is dependent on the written or spoken words, while nonverbal communication

which is conveyed by facial expressions, posture as well as space between individuals accounts

for 93% of all conversation. As a result, youngsters who are more and more obsessed with online

communication will either almost lose their ability to communicate in real life or become

antisocial (Final Inquiry Project, 2015). The negative impact of social media on social skills,

once again, emphasizes the importance of parents monitoring their children's online activities.

Parental supervision of children's online activity is critical because parents can shield

their children from cyberbullying. In fact, cyberbullying is now more prevalent than ever

(Thompson, 2018). Johnson (2021) stated that an increasing number of children had been

subjected to online abuse on social media. A Pew Research Center survey found that “59% of

U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online” in some way such as offensive name-calling,

rumor-spreading, physical threats online and explicit images (Anderson, 2018, p. 1). In a broader

and more recent context, in eleven European countries, 44% of children who were bullied prior

to the lockdown reported that it increased during the lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic

(Lobe et al., 2021). Cyberbullying can harm teens' safety and security by causing hurt feelings,

depression, anger, fear, frustration, low self-esteem, withdrawal, avoidance of social

relationships, poor academic performance, and, in extreme cases, suicide (Mintz, 2019). Thus, it

is apparent that cyberharassment has tremendously negative consequences for young people.

A condemnation of the proposed permanent solution insists that freeing in using social

media platforms is an easy way for children to communicate with the world. Notwithstanding,
this benefit is negligible, even following studies prove the opposite site. Dr. Jazayeri (2016)

indicated that the world we see on all the social media sites is not a genuine presentation of

reality. Many children suffer from isolation, depression and fear of missing out (FOMO) when

using social networks (Tumbokon, 2020). Furthermore, Tumbokon (2020) also admitted that the

more time children spend surfing online, the less happiness they feel in the world around them.

Apart from this, children are facing a variety of communication-related hazards including

meeting friends that have risky behaviors or being shocked about the differences in

characteristics between the virtual world and reality (Livingstone & Helsper, 2007). As a result,

parents monitoring their children's activities on social media platforms is significant for

long-term solutions.

All things considered, children's use of social media should be monitored and regulated

by their parents on account of its negative results, particularly the leakage of personal

information, the neglect of necessary social skills, and cyberbullying. Parents must assist their

offspring in taking advantage of online platforms while avoiding its risks by monitoring the

online content and websites their offspring access and limiting children's screen time (Anderson,

2016). After all, parents always have an important responsibility in orienting their children to use

social networks effectively.

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