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Katie Nguyen
Derohanessian
English 115A
2 December 2014
Effects of Instagram on Young Children
Its no surprise that social media has taken over the trends of society. But one social
media site in particular has appealed to a very young generation. Children as young as six have
obsessed over the use of Instagram. Not only do they use Instagram to connect with their friends,
they admire many celebrities that post pictures that may not be appropriate for their age. Because
of this, young children are being exposed to pictures that are more suitable for an older
generation. The effects that Instagram has had on young children shows societys dependence on
social interactions at any age; but younger generations fascination with social media has
jeopardized their privacy and has increased their chances of getting stalked and cyber bullied.
This trendy app did not become popular until a few years ago. Although Instagram
accounts are only allowed for teens and older, many kids have created accounts by lying about
their age. Its popularity comes from the fact that it combines aspects of Twitter, Facebook, and
Photoshop. Users are allowed to publically post pictures with captions of anything they want and
anyone is able to like and comment on the photo. Dr. Rosen, a Psychology professor, writes in
the Scholastic Parent & Child article that children born after the year 2000 are part of
Generation C, the connected generation. Connecting through social media is normal for the
younger generations. They have not lived in a world where social media has not existed. They
have been exposed to technology for most of their life and do not know how to live without it.

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These generations of adolescents use the online environment to explore matters important to
them in their off-line lives (Patton). They constantly are on their phones posting pictures,
captioning what they are doing. They socialize with their friends through Instagram instead of
conversing personally. Social media has eliminated the need for face-to-face interactions.
Instagram is their way of showing the world what they are doing and finding out what others are
doing. They do not see how much harm the app can bring to them and how it can negatively
affect their life not only in the present but also in the future.
The main concern with young children using Instagram is the privacy that they are giving
up, putting their safety in jeopardy. Strangers are able to view posted pictures simply by
searching hash tags. A hash tag is a search engine for specific words or phrases. Predators can
simply search a hash tag such as #selfie and find millions of photos that have used that hash
tag to caption their photo. Not only does Instagram allow those easy search engines, pictures can
be precisely located by where it was taken and uploaded. Stalking has been an issue in the United
States for decades now, and with social media evolving rapidly, it has only become easier. Most
young children that use Instagram do not realize the danger of what they are involved in. Child
predators are able to pinpoint the location of young children in any part of the world. Social
media has aided predators even though that was not its intention. Technology and social media
are the new frontier in coercive control, monitoring, and harassment (Lyndon, Bonds-Raacke,
Cratty). Young children that use social media are now in danger of cyber harassment and social
stalking due to their fascination and desire to keep up with societal trends.
Cyber bullying is one of the leading causes of death amongst adolescents. With the
increasing popularity of Instagram, cyber bullying has only gotten easier. When using social
media, most children are oblivious to the fact that anyone in the world can view their photo, not

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just their circle of friends. In a matter of seconds, someone can write a comment bullying these
naive young children. In recent years social media has become recognized as a vehicle through
which youth perpetuate acts of violence against their peers, such as bullying, harassment, dating
aggression, and gang-related crimes (Patton). Instagram claims to have strict policies against
pictures that are posted, but harsh comments cannot be censored. Many children are hurt by
negative comments and many that are constantly harassed end up committing suicide. Instagram
is just another way where cyber bullying can occur in young children. Because they are not old
enough to tolerate the bullying, social media is doing nothing but harm them.
The other danger to Instagram is that inappropriate pictures are not blocked just because
of age. Certain images that are only appropriate for older users can still be viewed by 6 year olds
that pretend to be 16 instead. Most parents are oblivious to the content that is on Instagram and
therefore are not able to monitor their children. Stars like Miley Cyrus post pictures that are not
suitable for young children, yet they follow and admire her. She was even voted worst celebrity
influence of the year by the same people who made her a star (Hollywood Reporter). However
young children are fascinated by her actions. In Figure 2, Miley posts a picture of herself
wearing stuffed boobs with her sticking her signature tongue out. Seeing inappropriate picture is
just the start of the effect that Instagram has on children. Young kids have started to post racy
pictures similar to Mileys without realizing who can view it; possibly a stranger. Many kids
ignore the fact that there is a privacy setting, which only allows certain people to view posted
pictures, because they want as many followers as they can get. They dont realize the danger of
the creepers that are looking at their photos, but instead are obsessed with popularity it brings to
them. Because these young children are very vulnerable, use of this app should be monitored by

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parents and the Instagram Corporation. Pictures that are unsuitable for a certain age should be
blocked and Instagram is solely responsible for that task.
Another reason why Instagram has taken over the lives of young children is that it has
affected their self-esteem. Many children have shattered their confidence because they might not
have as many followers compared to another peer. Instagram has been viewed as a vehicle for
inflicting self-harmmost notably, cyber-suicide (Patton). The more followers they have on
Instagram, the better they feel about themselves. This shows how society has been influenced by
social media and has affected younger generations self confidence. For example, those that
might not have as many followers start to doubt their appearance and their interpretation of
normal. In Figure 1, a young teen poses in a bikini but is clearing sucking her stomach in to
appear skinnier. Instagram has also started to measure popularity because it counts the number of
followers of a user and the number of likes on a photo. Also when children see users who post
scandalous pictures have the most followers, they begin to post pictures similar to them because
they want that popularity too. Instagram has enhanced the need of acceptance in society and has
made the innocent youth feel obligated to live up to those standards. The use of Instagram has
corrupted the minds of young children and has negatively affected their self-esteem.
Essentially, Instagram is not to blame for this corruptive outburst; it is the parents of
these young children. Parents are responsible for protecting their children from anything that
may be harmful to them. Strict age requirements can be enforced by parents denying a childs
use of the app. But with technology advancing rapidly, smart phones are the only types of phones
on the market, giving parents no other choice for communication. Children then go behind their
parents rules and use Instagram without consent or supervision. Technological advancements
are the biggest trends in todays society and that will only increase as time goes by. Therefore

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social media is able to reach out to young generations and the corruption of their minds is
inevitable.
Fascination and societal trends bring social media to younger generations each year.
Children are corrupted with self esteem issues and feel the need to live up to social standards.
Some want to feel normal while others want to stand out. But because of their immaturity, they
are blind to the dangers involved with their action on social media. Stalkers and Child Predators
easily gain access to personal information and location of young children, using social media to
their advantage. This just shows the nature of society and how social media is guiding its
evolution.

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Works Cited

Estroff, Sharon Duke. "Does INSTA GRAM Put Kids At Risk?." Scholastic Parent & Child 20.8
(2013): 44-49. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

"Instagram - Fast, Beautiful Photo Sharing for Your IPhone." Instagram. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct.
2014.

Lyndon, Amy, Jennifer Bonds-Raacke, and Alyssa D. Cratty. "College Students' Facebook
Stalking Of Ex-Partners." Cyberpsychology, Behavior, And Social Networking 14.12
(2011): 711-716. PsycINFO. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

"Oh, Miley." Hollywood Reporter 30 Oct. 2009: 2. General OneFile. Web. 28 Oct. 2014

Patton, Desmond Upton, et al. "Social Media As A Vector For Youth Violence: A Review Of
The Literature." Computers In Human Behavior 35.(2014): 548-553. PsycINFO. Web. 28
Oct. 2014.

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