CLEVELAND — Social media is a part of everyday life for many of us. In this "Mom Minute Monday," I talked to a pediatric psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic about what is age appropriate for kids and social media.
More and more kids are using apps like Facebook Messenger and games like Roblox. Are these gateway apps? Are we exposing them too soon to a platform that is shown to lower self-esteem?
Dr. Vanessa Jensen with the Cleveland Clinic says we should keep kids off social media or apps if there is a judgmental component.
“When it comes to something judgmental or evaluative, young kids don't understand that. We don't ask them in school to do that. So, I think sometimes parents can think about what do we expect them to be doing in school right now? Are they comparing their papers? Well, probably not in first grade so maybe that's too young to be asking for feedback from other kids.”
Dr. Jensen says when bad things happen and someone says something mean, we must help our kids understand that it is just one person’s opinion.
“It doesn't mean you have to unlike them or you have to say something mean, you can just learn to ignore,” Jensen says. “That's just their opinion, so we're just going to not pay attention to that and feel good about all the people who said they liked what you said.”
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