An almost uncontrolled situation
More and more adolescents are suffering anxiety and depression when they do not have access to their mobile device, due to the need to always stay online and watch their favorite content at all times. In fact, there have been cases where children say they can’t watch movies because they last too long, preferring series or shorts of 30-40 minutes. This is because your holding time is increasingly smaller, making it impossible to spend more than two hours in front of a large screen without viewing the mobile device.
The studies that have been carried out in the country of the stars and stripes and reported by The Washington post affirm that “Over the last decade, we have seen how addictive and overwhelming the online world can be, exposing our children to a relentless stream of harmful content and fueling our national youth mental health crisis.” says Eric Adams, mayor of New York.
Google, Meta and TikTok defend themselves
Social networks are intended for you to spend time on it, since this way they can obtain more advertising revenue. Therefore, controlling the use of children and adolescents on these platforms represents a blow to the navigation rudder of these companies. It is clear that, if these movements occur, they will look for mechanisms to continue increasing their income.
The TikTok spokesperson reported that it works with entities and develops practices to address the challenges of the industry and adolescents. Specifically, his words are the following:
“TikTok has industry-leading safeguards to support the well-being of teens, including age-restricted features, parental controls, an automatic 60-minute time limit for users under 18, and more.”
The same situation exists with Meta, where the entity’s spokesperson, Mark Zuckerberg, stated that “teenagers have safe and age-appropriate online experiences, and we have more than 30 tools and features to support them and their parents. “We have spent a decade working on these issues and hiring people who have dedicated their careers to keeping young people safe and supported online.”
Google, for its part, reported that the company is working with experts in mental health, youth and parenting to prevent these problems from impacting the professional, personal and academic development of its users.
Despite the companies’ efforts, teenagers themselves say that it is impossible for them to reduce the desire to spend time online, alerting parents and the entire educational community.
In this sense, Apple has launched new features via software to establish limits on usage timeas well as know the time we spend each day on each of the different social networks. However, for now it seems that the only solution is to take more drastic measures to reduce the dependence of a society deeply dependent on the novelty of its friends and people of reference.
In the coming months we will learn about the movements that States and companies make to reach a consensus that is beneficial to all. And you, do you think that adolescents have dependency? Do you consider implementing more severe control measures? You can leave your opinion in the comments.