Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Systematic Review
Abstract: This systematic review examines the multifaceted challenges of child protection and vulnerability within uncensored social media environments, focusing on trends from 2020 to 2025. The pervasive integration of social media into children's lives, driven by engagement-maximizing algorithms, exposes them to significant risks including harmful content, cyberbullying, online grooming, and exploitation. A critical new threat identified is the proliferation of AI-generated content, particularly synthetic child sexual abuse material (CSAM), which complicates traditional detection and prevention efforts. The review synthesizes findings on the psychological, developmental, and social impacts of such exposure, revealing increased rates of anxiety, depression, body image issues, and sleep disruption among young users. An assessment of current protective measures— including parental mediation, platform self-regulation, and legislative initiatives— reveals them to be largely insufficient, reactive, and fragmented, failing to keep pace with rapid technological advancements. The study concludes by proposing comprehensive, collaborative strategies for stakeholders including parents, educators, policymakers, and tech companies, emphasizing the urgent need for a fundamental shift towards child-safe platform design, robust regulatory frameworks, and advanced AI-powered protective mechanisms to foster a safer online environment for children.
Institution: Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4413523309