Teenagers grow up in the world of dig-tech dependency, and Parents may or may not be aware that risk-taking peaks might not come as a surprise at the exact age of mid-adolescence. The moment puberty starts around 11 -12, from the late teens to the early 20s, brings many emotions and behaviour changes.
At 14, teens are at the delicate stage where they are emotionally vulnerable, desperate for social validation, and impressed by influencers. At this age, teens’ brains are not mature, and they are unaware of the dangers and can’t recognize digital risks. They can expose inappropriate content and become victims of cyberbullying and rampant online predators. Thus, those aged 14 are at a more vulnerable stage. So, we’ll discuss why age 14 is considered the most dangerous and how parents can secure their kids.
“We have come to know that the age of teenager at which they really got the greatest proportion of risky choices and that is 14 especially when they got there first mobile phone & internet access, according to the Sara –Jayne Blakemore from University College of London has written in her book “Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brian”.
Parents Concerns For The Teens: Pew Research Center
Most of the kids in the early teens have serious problems, especially at the age of 14 and the majority of the issues come in their life due to the access to the digital world using cell phones, and the internet.
- 60% of tweens within the age of 14 that use social media all day long got bullied online & in real –life
- 54% of tweens are more likely to struggle with depression, anxiety and stress
- 50% of tweens got abducted, kidnapped that share privacy on social media apps
- 45% of the tweens got beat up at schools & have to face shaming online
- 43% of school going teens got pregnant use dating apps and get involved in uncommitted sexual activities
- 41% of teens got influence of drug abuse by the peers using social media platforms
- 75% of tweens have their individual cell phones & internet access
How the 14 Age is Risk and Dangerous for Teenagers in Digital World?
At this young age, when juveniles’ brains develop, anything they get involved in becomes an obsession or habit, which could eventually become a profession, whether that particular habit is beneficial or too dangerous for them.
Kids get cell phones and internet access at such a young age, which means they can explore things. You know what it means to have cyberspace access without any filters or parental control. Let’s discuss the issues they may get involved in using the digital world and what could be the result we can get out of it.
The Emotional and Psychological Challenge
The age 14 sometimes hits differently on teens’ mental and physical health. It includes some factors such as :
Emotional or sensitive nature: As kids’ brains grow, they may become more sensitive and can’t control their feelings and stress. For example, they lose their self-esteem if they have a terrible online experience.
Lose self-esteem: continued exposure to social media and the digital world can result in fake self-comparison, which increases the inferiority complex.
Peer pressure: At this age, kids are more likely to answer their questions and be confused by peers, which is much more risky than you think.
Excessive Screen Time or Digital Addiction
At this age, kids like to entertain themselves with the latest, trendy games, scroll through media and watch their favourite series.
Screen effect on the brain: Prolonged screen habits cause impulse control problems, a lack of skills, and a short attention span.
Dopamine effect: the uses of social media develop the urge to comment, like, and review, which makes it a digitally addictive person.
Fail in academic performance: Teens and kids lose their academic performance or become distracted by studies, which results in continued failure.
Online Dangerous
Online damage is caused by the internet and social media access but realizes prolonged effects.
Online predators: at this age, teens are manipulated by online predators in grooming and chat rooms.
Cyberbullying: the most dangerous is cyberbullying, which emotionally and psychologically affects teens or can be the result of social isolation, depression, anxiety, and sometimes a cause of suicide.
Access to unfiltered content: teens access inappropriate content such as explicit, violence, porn and abusive language that can harm kid upbringing.
I am text block. Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Privacy Theft
Excessive sharing through social media is highly risky, as it can leak personal information that can be misused.
Oversharing: kids didn’t understand the long-term effect of personal information sharing results and consequences. It can be used for criminal activities or misused, affecting their upbringing.
Puberty can do worse on the Brain
Typically, tweens in the age of 11 -12 get started to feel emotions, and sexual hormonal changes occur numerously at the age of 12 -14. So, young teens who are used to social media and the internet may get access to inappropriate content online, and naked body images become their addiction. It means they can easily get exploited for sexual activities on the web by anyone and even at school. Teenage or adolescent pregnancy is on the rise, and parents should snoop into teens’ digital, real-life, hidden activities before it is too late.
Unaccepted Parents Behaviours
Parents are more likely to apply punishment in parenting and don’t realize they are just making back-to-back blunders. Apart from the punishments, they should initially teach teens internet netiquette and how much they should use cell phones and social media. Instead of building trust,t parents use punishment, and ultimately, kids get exploited, and trust between parents and teens cannot build up.
How can We Mitigate these Dangers?
Parents can follow the given guide to reduce the risk of early childhood and create a safe and secure digital environment for their children.
Get awareness: Parents should be focused on knowing what’s going on and what the new trends are to protect children.
Create open communication: Always be friendly with your underage child and give them a chance to openly communicate about their digital experience. You can guide them by your experiences.
Be supportive: Try to be supportive of teens struggling with social media trauma or any kind of challenge.
Use parental control: The most important thing is that parents control their teens’ digital activities all day long. In addition, they can monitor their surroundings and even use a location tracking to know their whereabouts when they are outside the house with peers rather than constantly yelling at them. Simply, they should win their teens’ trust with love and care and get to know their digital activities with a cell phone parental monitoring app.
Use TheOneSpy for Professional Help
TheOneSpy, as parental control monitoring software, helps millions of parents protect their children from digital dangers, enabling you to safeguard them with its amazing features. This app provides you with robust features such as screen recording, limited screen time, app and web blocker, call recorder, app activity report, live camera, and mic streaming. Simple, it provides you with almost every feature you want for your teen’s safety. but you’ve to install it on your child’s device and get a remote view of their activity.
Conclusion
At age 14, I faced various challenges in digital time that combined high levels of risk. Thus, it requires a diligent parent with a professional assistant. Therefore, we give you the rising dangers with the most authentic solution. As the TheOneSpy parental control monitoring tool helps you navigate your teen online world and protects you from digital dangers.
