This week I read an interesting article discussing kids and social media. The article discussed that as a growing number of kids at younger ages are engaging in online social networking today, new trends of social media have happened. However, researches and platforms are not ready for kids. The article calls for researches regarding kids’ usage on social media platform as well as building proper platforms and taking protective steps to safeguard kids’ online.
Currently, the major portion of users in social networking are demographically adolescences and young adults. Therefore, a majority of social networking functionalities and tools online are set and designed based on their preferences and behaviors. Most researches also put their emphasis on examining adolescences usage. However, young kids have different practices and preferences online. According to the article, time spending on social networking sites contributes a lot on building identities, develop social communication skills and also widen future plans. Therefore, the fact is that an increasing number of young kids are participating in online social networking now while platforms for kids are not really ready.
As a critical tool nowadays, social media can help a lot on promoting 21 century skills for kids such as ICT (information, communication technology) literacy and collaboration. More and more educators have also realized the benefits of blending learning together with social media. Thus, how to build a safe and effective platform for kids to learn becomes the topic that we cannot ignore.