The Negative Effects of Social Networking Sites on Teens Thesis

The Negative Effects of Social Networking Sites on Teens - Thesis Example There are a number of potential negative implications of this phenomenon for adolescents and parents. For me, based on my observations, two of these negative effects are major. First concerns safety. There are many instances, as we always see in the news, where sexual offenders have been successful locating teenagers through the private information posted in their social networking profiles. Information that these youngsters think would only be of importance for or for the use of their family and friends can be accessed by strangers with harmful outcomes. Second concerns employment opportunities in the future. Employers locate unfavorable information about the past of the individual as s/he seeks employment. Injurious information could be posted that bad people could change to harm the person’s reputation. Primarily, several studies have revealed adolescent health concerns caused by online victimization and threatening sexual solicitation (Romm-Livermore & Setzekorn, 2009). Th ese dangerous sexual solicitations takes places when teenagers are invited to take part in sexual interaction or sexual relationships or to give private sexual information. This is confirmed to me by one of my friends who told me that a young girl persuaded him to take off his clothes in front of the webcam. Online victimization is identified by humiliating or antagonistic remarks or statements posted about a teenager on the Internet. As narrated by one of the teenagers I interviewed for this paper, â€Å"A classmate made a very bad joke by posting things about me on Facebook and spreading rumors about me having sexual interaction with different guys in chat rooms. These guys are total strangers to me, I do not know them. She started doing this when I got... As the essay declares social networking sites have in fact inherent positive and negative implications. Obviously, these are websites open to the prying public. People from all walks of life can access and use them. There are a number of potential negative implications of this phenomenon for adolescents and parents. For me, based on my observations, two of these negative effects are major. First concerns safety. There are many instances, as we always see in the news, where sexual offenders have been successful locating teenagers through the private information posted in their social networking profiles. This paper stresses that information that these youngsters think would only be of importance for or for the use of their family and friends can be accessed by strangers with harmful outcomes. Second concerns employment opportunities in the future. Employers locate unfavorable information about the past of the individual as s/he seeks employment. Injurious information could be posted that bad people could change to harm the person’s reputation. Online victimization is connected to coexisting psychosocial difficulties and emotional problems. Definitely, the avoidance of these negative experiences is greatly vital. Whether current recommendations to control or in other ways discourage teenagers from taking part in online social networking are an essential attempt in doing has still to be empirically and systematically studied.