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Social media and children: what is the paediatrician’s role?

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Abstract

Social media use has become an integral part of children’s and adolescents’ lives. It has become a novel way of interaction among people and influences people’s social lives and public opinion as well as people’s purchasing decisions and businesses. Any website or platform that allows social interaction is considered to be a social media site. Social media use among children in 25 European countries has been reported to be 38% among 9–12 year olds and 77% among those aged 13–16 years. All these children report having their own profile on at least one social network site. While social networking provides children and adolescents with many opportunities and benefits, it also carries many risks. Among the benefits are socialization and communication enhancement, improving learning skills, positive impact on education and getting health information. Potential risks of social media use include falsifying age and identity, cyberbullying, sexting, Facebook depression, gamification, glamourization, cyberostracism and sleep disturbances.

Conclusion: Paediatricians play a vital role in promoting the physical, mental and social welfare of all children. There is a critical need for paediatricians to play an active role, guiding children and families appropriately through the impact of social networking, in order to become a real driver of children’s development.

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Abbreviations

SNS:

Social network site

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paediatrics, Larnaca General Hospital, Inomenon Polition, 6042, Larnaca, Cyprus

    Adamos Hadjipanayis & Elisavet Efstathiou

  2. Medical School, European University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Adamos Hadjipanayis

  3. European Academy of Paediatrics, Brussels, Belgium

    Adamos Hadjipanayis, Elisavet Efstathiou, Peter Altorjai, Tom Stiris, Arunas Valiulis, Berthold Koletzko & Helena Fonseca

  4. Association of Hungarian Primary Care Paediatricians, Budapest, Hungary

    Peter Altorjai

  5. Department of Neonatology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

    Tom Stiris

  6. Faculty of medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Tom Stiris

  7. Vilnius University Medical Faculty, Institutes of Clinical Medicine and Health Sciences, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Arunas Valiulis

  8. LMU - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, Univ. of Munich Medical Centre, Munich, Germany

    Berthold Koletzko

  9. Adolescent Medicine Division, Department of Paediatrics, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Helena Fonseca

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  1. Adamos Hadjipanayis
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Contributions

• Adamos Hadjipanayis: study conception, design and drafting the article

• Elisavet Efstathiou: drafting the article

• Peter Altorjai: contributed to the improvement of the manuscript in terms of content

• Tom Stiris: study conception and reviewed the manuscript

• Arunas Valiulis: scrutinized and reviewed the manuscript

• Bert Koletzko: scrutinized and reviewed the manuscript

• Helena Fonseca: commented on the initial draft and contributed to improve the manuscript in terms of content.

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Correspondence to Adamos Hadjipanayis.

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Hadjipanayis, A., Efstathiou, E., Altorjai, P. et al. Social media and children: what is the paediatrician’s role?. Eur J Pediatr 178, 1605–1612 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-019-03458-w

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