ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses issues of cyber-bullying, gang-related crime, the fear of missing out driven by advertising and peer pressure, online game addiction, idealisation and anxiety body image, and children’s access to porn. Screen time is displacing healthier activities such as physical exercise, face-to-face socialising or reading a book. The increase of social media pressures has led to rising mental ill health. In today’s society, multiple social and media influences are increasingly being reinforced by peer pressure through cyber-bullying. Social media, advertising, music, films and online games communicate the vital importance of money. Technology stretches minds but also entices children to spend excessive time on their phones and games. Chat rooms enable virtual contact with lots of people but this allows far less time to communicate directly and read faces. The media – Internet, films, television, advertisements, hoardings – saturate us with images of toned, slim bodies.
