KZN Health MEC highlights social media's impact on children's mental health
KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane highlights the alarming impact of social media on children's mental health, urging parents to take an active role in their children's online lives.
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KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane has issued a strong warning to parents about the dangerous impact social media is having on the mental health of young people, urging them to be more present in their children’s digital lives.
Speaking during the Department’s KZN Health Chat multimedia programme on Friday, Simelane made a heartfelt appeal for parents to pay attention to the content their children are consuming online and who they are interacting with.
“Our children become severely affected by social media,” said Simelane. “You realise that, as parents, we take it for granted, thinking ‘it’s just a phone.’ But you find cases where a child may take their own life… and everyone is left in shock, asking themselves why, and what happened? Were they depressed? Only to find that it’s due to the pressure that they had put themselves under, based on what they see on social media.”
Simelane said a growing number of mental health challenges facing children, including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and suicidal thoughts, can be linked to social media over-use, peer pressure, and unrealistic portrayals of life online. She warned that many children are spending large portions of their day online with minimal supervision or emotional support.
Research cited by the MEC from Hello Yes Marketing and Meltwater shows that South Africans spend an average of 3 hours and 36 minutes daily on social media, well above the global average. Even more concerning, 95% of children aged 10 to 17 have regular internet access, 62% own a phone or tablet by age 10, and 83% have a social media account by age 12.
“Some children get bullied on social media,” said Simelane. “Recently, we saw a case where a high school learner superimposed the face of a girl on the social media profile of a sex worker and posted it. Can you imagine how that girl must be feeling? That’s part of cyberbullying.”
Calling for open communication, Simelane urged parents to “come closer to their children” and monitor their online activity. “It is very important for us to know what our children are exposed to on these platforms, so we can be able to intervene if needs be,” she said.