How does Facebook use by teenagers in India affect them?

Ah! Teenage years, you must all remember your teenage years quite well. The years of anguish and passive aggressiveness. The years of confusion when you felt that no one understood you. No one understood your struggle. No one got what you were going through back then. Most of all your parents. Your parents who wanted to interfere with your life at every chance they got and tried very hard to make your life miserable. Oh how they ruined their life so sadistically! They never allowed you to be who you are, do what you want, live your life the way you wanted! They never allowed you to express yourself. Everything you ever did was wrong in their eyes. Think back to the power struggles you had with your parents in those teenaged years.

Somehow it’s always hard to remember your teenage struggles when you are dealing with your child who has entered his or her teenage years. You cannot imagine how your child to whom you were the world suddenly changed into this different person as he got older. A person who will challenge you and rebel against your every decision. A person who does not seem to believe that what you are doing and the decisions you are making are actually good for them in the long run. How do you explain to your child that in your teenaged years things were different? Which they truly were! In your teen years, the main concern for your parents used to be bad elements affecting their child. These bad elements could be found in the real world, the tangible world. And there were ways to protect kids from these bad elements. But today, kids can be abused and exploited through seemingly innocent mediums. Facebook is one such medium.  

Facebook use by teenagers in India is on the rise and no matter what you may try to do, it is very difficult to rein in the use of Facebook by our teenaged children. The dilemma arises because internet and to some extent social media sites like Facebook are academically important for a child. But Facebook has a very ugly side which worries parents today. Cyber-bullying, sex chats, child grooming, child pornography, most of these elements that terrorise parents are rampant on social media. This is why it is worrying when you see that Facebook use by teenagers in India has increased in the past few years. Understanding this social page and explaining it to your child and warning them about the ills of Facebook could give good results. But to stay on the safer side, you could take the help of online applications that can keep a check on your child’s Facebook usage and keep you warned about any untoward incident.

We wish you luck as you tackle this monster called Facebook!