Social networking sites may not have direct harm to teenagers, but they may reduce the time they spend on things that are good for health, such as sleep and exercise, according to a new study.
Parents should ban the use of smartphones in bedrooms from 10 pm and encourage teenage children to exercise, citing British researchers involved in the study.
The study pointed out that girls are more likely to be harassed on social networking sites, which may expose them to psychological pressure, but pointed out that psychological pressure on boys because of the browsing of these sites need more research.
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Nine out of ten adolescents use social media, which has helped to raise recent concerns about their impact on the health and mental health of young people.
So far, there is conflicting evidence provided by scientists on the damage to the sites because of the lack of data covering long periods.
The study, published in The Lancet, specializes in child and adolescent health, interviewed 12,000 teenagers in schools in England over a three-year period, a research sample aged 13 to 16.
She revealed that boys and girls who use social networking sites more than 3 times a day may become mentally weaker and suffer from greater stress. Girls who participated in the polls in this study reported a decline in their sense of happiness, as well as increased anxiety in later years. But the boys did not mention it.
The researchers said there is scientific evidence that there is a strong relationship between the use of social media sites and the level of health and mental health.
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For girls, however, the negative effects of using the sites were associated with sleep disturbances and electronic harassment. At the bottom of the list of reasons for not exercising sports, and in contrast, these factors were less influential with boys.
The research team prepared for this study pointed to differences between the use of girls and boys on social networking sites, but more research is needed and explained that more work is needed to discover the factors that control the exposure of boys to psychological pressure due to social networking sites.
