Fifty-nine percent of teens say they’ve been bullied online, reports Pew. In a 2017 survey by Ditch the Label, an anti-bullying group, more than one in five 12-to-20-year-olds said they’d been bullied on Instagram. “Instagram is many teens’ entire social infrastructure,” writes Lorenz. “At its most destructive, bullying someone on there is the digital equivalent of taping mean flyers all over someone’s school, and her home, and her friends’ homes.” Teenagers have always been

Forty-five percent of teens say they’re online nearly all the time, reports Pew Research Center. Ninety-five percent own or have access to a smartphone. Facebook is falling in popularity since the 2014-15 survey. While half of U.S. teens use Facebook, 85 percent use YouTube, 72 percent Instagram and 69 percent Snapchat. Teens don’t agree about the effect of social media, Pew reports. While 31 percent say it’s mostly positive, 24 percent think it’s mostly negative. Of those wh

When is a child ready for social media asks Judi Ketteler in the New York Times. Her 9-year-old son is showing off his flips on Instagram. Her 7-year-old daughter wants her own YouTube channel. “Spend some time introducing your child to social media, the same way you introduce them to your neighborhood,” advises Sherry Turkle, a MIT psychologist and author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. The “social media talk” — like discussing the birds and t

Four Bay Area 11th graders suspended for “liking” or commenting on a racist Instagram image have sued the school district and administration for violating their free speech rights and subjecting them “to public ridicule, shaming and violence,” reports Matthias Gafni in the San Jose Mercury News. Albany High students protest racist classmates. On March 20, Albany High students told teachers about a student’s Instagram account, which included photos “of 11 students — most of th