Instant Influence: Why kids are growing up quicker than our generation did

When I was little, having a babysitter meant drawing with chalk on the driveway and playing tag outside — indoors was the last place I wanted to be. But now that I’m babysitting, kids never want to work on a puzzle or play basketball — they’d rather play Mario Kart or watch YouTube.

With kids nowadays getting phones and social media at an unprecedented early age, they seem to be growing up faster than ever. Whether that be through the more mature entertainment they’re consuming or the way they’re dressing and following trends, there’s an obvious difference between our generation and the generation of kids growing up now.

While elementary schoolers now spend their free time after school tagging ‘#ForYouPage’ on TikTok videos in the hopes of going viral, my friends and I spent weekday evenings climbing trees and playing capture the flag, without a care in the world for Snapchat or Instagram. 

It’s disheartening to see young kids struggle with mental health issues and friend drama, while they should really only care about having fun and experiencing a stress-free childhood. They’re paying too much attention to their appearance, trying to copy the influencers who’ve risen in fame over the past few years is stealing their childhood.

TikTokers like Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae seem to have a fan base largely consisting of younger children — which D’Amelio has solidified by releasing a book geared towards elementary schoolers —  while the content they’re promoting is geared toward older teenagers or even young adults, such as paid advertisements for makeup brands or making provocative TikTok dances to explicit songs.

Although influencers aren’t the sole reason kids are maturing too quickly, they should be more aware of the age range of their audience and monitor the content they produce to ensure a safer online environment for the kids watching.

Social media stars and TikTokers definitely aren’t always the best role models for younger kids, but parents are the ones who are able to most closely monitor what content their kids are consuming. I know nobody likes a helicopter parent, but it’s good for parents to at least keep an eye on the creators their children are following to ensure the content isn’t too mature their age.

Social media and pop culture shouldn’t have to be a place that’s family-friendly all the time, because it was never meant for 10-year-olds. Influencers and creators on platforms like YouTube and Instagram shouldn’t have to completely change their content to make it more kid-friendly when these creators are adults themselves.

Parents can prevent their elementary schoolers from watching and following people who aren’t age appropriate — maybe starting with not giving their child a phone in the first place so kids don’t feel as tied to a device at an early age, as their minds are still innocent and developing.

It’s understandable that parents are naturally protective over their children and want to easily get a hold of them through their phone, along with there being peer pressure among kids who already have phones. 

But, there are ways to place restrictions on certain apps and websites so kids can’t download social media without their parents’ permission. And there are versions of platforms, such as YouTube and Netflix, that filter the content so it’s kid-friendly. 

While I would just get home from school and turn on cable TV, kids can now open up their iPads to a much larger variety of content, and there’s no complete way to change the fact that social media and technology will continue to evolve and reach younger ages.

In my eyes, the only solution is to keep kids away from social media until they’re of age, which on most platforms, such as Instagram and Snapchat, is 13-years-old, according to their Terms of Service.

It’s sad to see a generation of computer games and cable TV slowly morph into a generation of young kids worrying about their makeup and social media followers — and it’s looking like the only way to prevent this is to have parents monitor more closely what kids are doing on their phones.