Dr. J. Nagaraj, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Sociology, Rani Anna Govt. College for Women

2. INTRODUCTION
 Social media is quickly evolving infront of our eyes and it is
almost impossible to reject and it is almost impossible to
reject and hide from this new form of media. Not only is it
an important part of socialization within peer groups but
now it is used to market and motivate people to become a
part of a large community. Today ,young kids play with
electronic devices like smartphones and tablets.
 Social media is an active part of your adolescent’s life.
However, as a parent ,he/she need to know how social
media effects on kids development. Young minds are
mouldable and social media can mould the way your child
thinks or behaves.

3.  At this age, good and bad. Social media also has a darkside.
Unfortunately the adverse effects seem to outnumber the
positive ones.
 Social media is the rage today and bully on an individual
media changes the way we perceive the world and interact
with one another. In today’s age, no one remains reclusive.
From the pings, chat windows to the pokes and emoticons,
everything exists to bring people closer, to make the world
more comfortable.

4. EFFECTS OF MEDIA ON CHILDREN

5. POSITIVE EFFECTS:
 Television is also a great medium that exposes children to
different languages around the world. Allowing your
children to watch news channel , with a little guidance will
help them stay updated with the current affairs and names
of significant people in the world.
 Television and Internet lets your travel around the world
without you ever having to step out of your home. It takes your
chid to different countries and educates them about various
cultures in the world.
 With the right choice of programs, your chid can learn about
people and their traditions, life styles and attitudes.

6.  Educational programs in media can encourage children
to try new things. Likewise , a documentary about
famous scientists, artists and other public figures can
also inspire them to do good deeds or achieve something
big in life.
 Learn new things , exchange ideas and helps them to
develop their networking skills.
 It helps in motivating children to get better at
communication and encourages freedom of self-
expression.
 Social media facilitates the development of technical
expertise and practical understanding of technology in
your child.

7. NEGATIVE EFFECTS:
 The vastness of social media ensures that there is no
control on the scope of information . Such situations can
lead to children bumping into obscence , harmful or
graphic websites that may affect their thinking process.
 Cyber bullying is another growing trend among social
media websites . Cyber bullying can have dangerous and
potentially fatal effects . It claims many victims each year .
Australia suffers from a large number of teen and other
youth suicides due to cyber bullying.

8.  Spending too much time can also affect your child
negatively and often lead to social media addiction .
Addiction can manifest various symptoms and may even
affects your child’s physical health.
 Too much social media can affect your child’s ability to
develop strong interpersonal relationships . Your child is
mouldable , and the avalanche of information can
overwhelm her.
 Watching certain programs may encourage irresponsible
sexual behaviour and an increase in violent behaviour by
children.

9.  Excessive television watching contributes to the increased
incidence of childhood obesity.
 Excessive television watching may have a deleterious effect
on learning and academic performance.
 Watching certain programs may encourage irresponsible
sexual behaviour.
 Television is an effective way of advertising products to
children of various ages.
 Television exposes children to adult sexual behaviours in
ways that portrays these actions as normal and risk free
where these behaviours are frequent, everybody does it.

10. VULNERABLE GROUP OF CHILDREN ON MEDIA:
The following groups of children may be more vulnerable
to violence on television:
 Children from minority and immigrant groups.
 Emotionally disturbed children.
 Children with learning disabilities.
 Children who are abused by their parents and
 Children in families in distress.
 Under age children may accidentally or by design access
pornographic sites.

11. COMMERCIAL ON CHILDREN:

12.  The development stage of a child plays a role in the
effect of commercials . Young children donot
understand the concept of a sales pitch . They are told
and may even assume that they are deprived if they
donot have advertised products . Most preschool
children donot understand the difference between a
program designed to sell . A number of studies have
documented that children under the age of eight years
are developmentally unable to understand the
difference between advertising and regular
programming.

13. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
 Social learning theory originated with Bandura’s which
suggests that children may learn aggression from viewing
others . Modeling of behaviour was observed in Bandura’s
Bobo Doll experiments . Bandura presented children with
an aggressive model . The model played with ‘harmless’
tinker toys for a minute or but then progressed onto the
Bobo Doll , the model lay the Bobo Doll down and was
violent towards it ; punched its nose hit it with a mallet,
tossed it in the air , and kicked it . In addition , verbal
comments were made in relation . They then put the
children in a room with a Bobo Doll to see if he/she would
imitate the behaviour previously seen on the video.

14.  The findings of this experiment suggests that children
tended to model the behaviour they witnessed in the
video . This has been often taken to imply that children
may imitate aggressive behaviours witnessed in media .
However , Bandura’s experiments have been criticized on
several grounds . First it is difficult to generalize from
aggression towards a bo-bo doll(which is intended to be
hit) to person-on-person violence . Secondly ,it may be
possible that the children were motivated simply to please
the experimenter rather than to be aggressive . In
otherwords , the children may have viewed the videos as
instructions , rather than incentives to feel more
aggressive.

15.  Third , in a latter study(1965) Bandura include a condition
in which the adult model was punished for hitting the
bo-bo doll by himself being physically punished .
Specifically the adult was pushed down in the video by the
experimenter and hit with a newspaper while being be
rated . This actual person-on-person violence actually
decreased aggressive acts in the children , probably due to
vicarious reinforcement. Nonetheless these last results
indicate that even young children don’t automatically
imitate aggression , but rather consider the context of
aggression .

16. EDUCATION AND PARENTAL INVOLEMENT
 Parents have to take a stand when it comes to media . If you
want to protect your children from the damaging effects of
television , here is what you can do.
 The first step is to figure out what shows are appropriate for
children . You will have to do some research to understand
the content and the message that the show sends out to
the audience.
 The content of the show must be appropriate for your
child’s age.
 Pick shows with shorter duration . The longer they watch ,
the more the chances of them getting addicted.
 Encourage them to watch educational programs by
watching them yourselves.

17.  Donot allow your kids to watch television while they are
eating . Ensure that you have dinner together , if possible ,
at the dinner table with no TV in the background.
 TV in bedrooms is a bad idea , especially for kids as
prolonged exposure to screens can affect their sleeping
habits.
 Don’t use TV as a babysitter when they want to do
something without being disturbed by their kids.
 Don’t leave the TV turned on in the background when you
are busy in the kitchen, doing the laundry or working from
home . That will only draw the child’s attention to the idiot
box.
 Chalk out specific TV times for kids for weekdays and
weekends and stick to them.

18. That will prevent them from watching too much TV on any
given day.
 Don’t make watching TV a fun family activity , instead of a
means to pass the time . That will discourage your children
to watching it when they are bored or alone at home.