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By Gavin Boyle
As college recruiting moves online, teen athletes may feel they need to have social media to get noticed by coaches, but this is not entirely the case.
“There are so many areas of life where we delay — sex, alcohol, credit cards, driving a car, etc. These are things we’ve normalized are not good for kids. But we haven’t yet normalized that tech use and smartphones were created for adults,” said Mothers Against Media Addiction experts Julie Scelfo and Julie Fruman.
Many teen athletes, however, can feel like they are falling behind their peers without social media, as posting highlights online can help them find early exposure to college recruiters. Not only does social media allow them to be seen by coaches, but it also allows them to connect with other athletes they may end up on a team with in college.
Related: Why Parents Should Be Cautious Posting Kids’ Photos on Social Media
These benefits are substantial and may be enough for some parents to allow their children to create social media accounts earlier than they otherwise would. Thankfully, though, there are other avenues for teens looking to make it onto a college team.
Multiple platforms including Hudl, FieldLevel and NCSA all allow athletes to post highlights of themselves that can only be viewed by coaches. They also allow these players and coaches to connect, easing worries about accessibility to recruiters. Internet safety experts also suggest parents could consider creating social media accounts for kids that are solely for their sport, rather than allowing them to mix a personal account with a professional one.
Nonetheless, the creation of any social media account comes with risks as sharing personal information online can lead to targeting by bad actors. For example, a teen athlete may post a picture with their normal practice field in the background which could lead a predator to zeroing on where they are often located.
“There is a thriving black market for personally identifiable information,” said Leah Plunkett, a faculty member at Harvard Law School who specializes in children, family law and technology. “Kids’ Social Security numbers, when combined with date of birth, name and address, are often good targets for identity theft. Most minors don’t have credit attached to their Social Security numbers, so [someone may be able to use them to] open fraudulent lines of credit.”
Additionally, any time someone young gets access to social media, their potential to face mental health issues skyrockets, due to easy access to comparison and judgement from the entire world.
Therefore, teen athletes do not necessarily need social media, though parents may end up allowing them to create an account. However, parents should be aware of the risks of doing so and do everything in their power to protect their children from the potential downsides.
Read Next: ‘It Is Toxic’: Gen Z Leave Major Social Media Platforms
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