{"id":337571,"date":"2017-07-19T07:25:18","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T07:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=337571"},"modified":"2017-07-19T07:25:18","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T07:25:18","slug":"social-networks-lead-to-anxiety-and-fear-in-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/07\/social-networks-lead-to-anxiety-and-fear-in-young\/","title":{"rendered":"Social networks ‘lead to anxiety and fear in young’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Research\u00a0from anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label suggests social media is making youngsters more anxious.<\/p>\n
Forty per cent said they felt bad if nobody liked their selfie and 35% said their confidence was directly linked to the number of followers they had.<\/p>\n
One in three said they lived in fear of cyber-bullying, with appearance cited as the most likely topic for abuse.<\/p>\n
One expert said children were growing up in “a culture of antagonism”.<\/p>\n
The survey, of more than 10,000 young people aged 12 to 20, suggested that cyber-bullying is widespread, with nearly 70% of youngsters admitting to being abusive towards another person online and 17% claiming to have been bullied online.<\/p>\n
Nearly half (47%) said they wouldn’t discuss bad things in their lives on social media and many offered only an edited version of their lives.<\/p>\n
“There is a trend towards people augmenting their personalities online and not showing the reality,” said Ditch the Label’s chief executive Liam Hackett.<\/p>\n
It found that Instagram was the vehicle most used for mean comments.<\/p>\n
Mr Hackett said: “Cyber-bullying continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing young people.<\/p>\n
“Not only is the internet redefining the climate of bullying, but also it is having clear impacts upon the identity, behaviours and personality of its young users.”<\/p>\n
He called on social networks to put more resources into policing the comments people post online and responding to complaints in a more timely manner.<\/p>\n
His views were echoed by Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England, who also called for a government ombudsman to be set up to mediate between the social network firms and children who are having problems.<\/p>\n
She also called for “compulsory digital citizenship classes” in schools.<\/p>\n