Since the iPad came out in 2010, parents have resorted to entertaining their children with apps like YouTube or Netflix. Eventually, children are exposed to more mature apps made for teenagers and adults such as TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram. On these apps, children can watch endless addicting videos made by their favorite influencers. Influencers are typically teenagers or adults who make a living by creating content for a brand or by getting paid directly from the app they’re creating on. These young people who grow up watching these influencers will look up to them and naturally try to emulate them.
Taylor Coggins is a chemistry teacher who wishes that these apps would not be exposed to children and believes that they should have more age restrictions.
“I think young people being exposed to social media at such a young age is an issue in our society. Young people are being deprived of a true childhood- a childhood without comparison with others or thinking you’re not good enough unless you do certain things,” Coggins said.
Young girls typically watch influencers who can promote anything from mature designer clothing to expensive skin products that are dangerous for children’s skin. When girls see influencers promoting these products, they buy them so they can be “trendy” and fit in with their friends who are also being influenced.
Across the country, there has been an epidemic of “Sephora Girls.” These young girls tend to go to their local Sephora store and rack up on all the products they’ve been seeing on the internet, causing a serious dent in their parent’s wallets. Sephora employees complain about these young girls destroying products and playing with samples rather than testing them out.
Mathilde Sexeny-Hauser (9) believes that these “Generation Alpha” children are growing up way too fast compared to how she grew up.
“Of course, as a little girl, I would play with my mother’s makeup and mess around with it, but now ‘Sephora Kids’ are destroying expensive makeup in stores aimed at teenagers and adults. Parents need to set boundaries and wait to go on shopping trips to Sephora until their kids are a little bit older,” Sexeny-Hauser said.
One popular skincare brand amongst these girls is the brand Drunk Elephant. This high-end skincare brand made its start with marketing on social media, leading thousands of young girls to pay upwards of $60 for one moisturizer. Many parents think that getting their daughters started on skincare early will make good hygiene a habit as they grow older. However, dermatologists disagree and say that these powerful ingredients in skincare such as retinol are ruining the faces pf young people.
Dr. Abigail Waldman, a dermatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has found that strong ingredients in skincare can be damaging to young complexions.
“Strong ingredients such as glycolic acid and retinol can be quite irritating, leading to rash and even hyperpigmentation if you’re using them too often or getting sun afterward, and these things are hard to solve,” Waldman said in a recent interview.
Young boys often watch influencers who can promote dangerous activities such as parkour or even underage drinking and drug use. YouTuber Logan Paul has over 23 million subscribers ranging from ages 7-18 years old. In 2022, Paul released his energy drink company, PRIME, creating a global craze for children everywhere. As soon as the drinks were released in grocery stores, they were sold out in days. Young consumers would buy them from each other for outrageous prices and parents would clamor for cases at their local stores. The craze for this drink seemed to neglect the fact that this drink contains 200 milligrams of caffeine. Doctors don’t recommend any amount of caffeine to young children, especially those with disorders such as ADHD or anxiety.
Charlotte Ward (10) thinks that children should enjoy their childhood rather than rush into adulthood.
“I think that little kids should definitely enjoy their lack of stress and responsibilities while they can and not be forced to grow up too fast because they will have plenty of time when they get older,” Ward said.
