POOPATTAYAKORN 1

Chanika Mind Poopattayakorn

Mr.Abel Cadias

English 10/ 10:01

May 16, 2017

Does Social Media Cause the Increase of Teen Pregnancy in Thailand?

The use of social media is one of the major causes which increases teen pregnancy rate in

Thailand by providing ease of connection from unaware teens to unreliable strangers, and increasing the

risk of anonymous relationships which can lead to unprotected sex. The purpose of this research report is

to explain how social media increase the risk of getting pregnant in teenagers. The importance of this

research report is to raise awareness about the negative effects of using social media which link to teen

pregnancy issues that happened in Thailand. The pieces of information found in this report are based on

eight sources. First, an article entitled Sexting as media production: Rethinking social media and

sexuality by Amy Adele Hasinoff shows the negative effects of girl teenagers sexting. The second

source, an article by Daria J. Kuss and Mark D. Griffiths called Online Social Networking and

AddictionA Review of the Psychological Literature explains about the usage patterns of SNS or Social

Networking Sites. Third, an article by Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson entitled

The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families points out the benefits and risks of

teens using social media, influence of advertisements and privacy concern of social media. Fourth, a

research by Michele L. Ybarra and Kimberly J. Mitchell entitled How Risky Are Social Networking

Sites? A Comparison of Places Online Where Youth Sexual Solicitation and Harassment Occurs

discusses the places online where sexting and harassment can occur among young people. Fifth, Taking

risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers' use of social networking sites for intimacy,

privacy and self-expression from Sonia Livingstone explores teenagers' behaviors of social networking

in order to uncover the subtle connections between online opportunity and risk. The sixth source from

Clifton Evers, Kath Albury, Paul Byron and Kate Crawford entitled This is Funny, You Should Watch

It discusses a number of issues related to the use of social media and SNS for sexual health
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communication, such as concerns about bullying, privacy, and the stigma attached to sexual health.

Seventh, an article from Punnee Amornviputpanich entitled New legislation covering teenage pregnancy

to take effect in July indicates about the problems and consequences of teenage pregnancy in Thailand.

Lastly, Bunyarit Sukrats journal entitled Thailand Adolescent Birth Rate: Trend and Related Indicators

reveals and describes trend of adolescent birth rate and related indicators in Thai population.

Social Media Addiction

The article entitled Online Social Networking and AddictionA Review of the Psychological

Literature from the website of Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute by Daria J. Kuss and Mark

D. Griffiths stated that social networks and their mass appeal could possibly cause a concern, especially,

when they appear to increase the amount of time spending online in each person little by little. Now,

people are potentially addicted by engaging in vast activities on the internet. Also, its difficult to tell

when affection for an activity turns into a dependency and goes too far into a harming propensity or

addiction. In fact, there are more than 70% of adolescents who arent use just only one social network

site(Lenhart, 2015). According to O'Keeffe, G. S., & Clarke-Pearson, K.(2011), more than half of

teenagers log on a social media more than once a day, and more than 20 percent use their favored social

media more than 10 times a day. Using social media can become a risk for teenagers more often than

most of them and most of the parents could realize. However, sometimes social media can also help

adolescents to complete or accomplish their important tasks and also provide profound benefits for them

too. Thus, many researches among different specialists like sociologists, psychiatrists, or psychologists

still had not officially diagnosed the Internet and social media addiction as a problematic behavior of

these days people(Young, 2009). Social media essentially is an array of Internet sites that allow people to

interact from all over the world, regardless of distances and time, in many ways(Whiteman, 2015). Even

though the amount of adults social media users is rising, the majority of the users still are the adolescent

and people under the age of 30. They all have their own reasons for using the social media. However,

according to Dr. Shannon M. Rauch, of Benedictine University at Mesa, boredom relief and self-
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distraction are the main reasons why we use social media. The rate of using social media among the

population are rapidly increasing which also contribute to the higher rate of social media addiction.

The Increase of Teen Pregnancy Rate in Thailand

The article entitled New legislation covering teenage pregnancy to take effect in July from the

website of The Nation by Punnee Amornviputpanich stated that Thailand has more than 130,000 teen

pregnancies each year, and the amount of young girls giving birth to the babies at the hospital all over the

country still increases every year continuously. According to Thailand Public Health Statistics, teens birth

rate per 1,000 adolescent girls in Thailand, from 1990, diminished from 42.2 to finally meet the lowest

rate of 31.1 in 2000. Then, the rate has incessantly increased. The current data in 2012 shows that

Thailand adolescent birth rate has already raised to 53.8. Since 2000, about four adolescents were

delivering babies daily, and the amount increased to nine in 2013(Siratharanon, 2016). An article from

UNFPA entitled Addressing teenage pregnancy in Thailand with a landmark law - and greater

understanding also indicates that over the last 15 years, there are over one million babies were born to

teen moms, with the increase of 31% from 2000 to 2014. According to a survey by Mahidol Universitys

Faculty of Medicine at Ramathibodi Hospital, almost one had become pregnant in every five of fifteen to

nineteen girls, approximately 80 percent of those pregnancies was extemporaneous, and ended up with

abortion about a third of them.They dont realize or beware of any profound effects that could occur after

they chose abortion(Neville, n.d.). Leaving their baby at the hospital was the idea that came to 10 percent

of the young mom's mind, while many were having the depression risks from their relationships failure

which could even lead to a suicide.

How Social Media Affects Teen Pregnancy Rate

According to an article from the University of British Columbia entitled Causes and Effects of

Teen Pregnancy, there are various reasons of the teenagers getting pregnant such as drugs and alcohol,
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low Socioeconomic status, peer pressure and sexual abuse, and media influence. Especially media

influence, it has become one of the most important causes that affect the teen pregnancy rate. All media

generally contain messages that triggered a subconscious emotional response of human(Graves, Johnson,

Walker, Thomas & Cowden, 2011). The media also often lured or influenced the adolescent to do things

they would not have normally done without the social media. Sex is introduced to most of the adolescents

by friends, books, magazines, movies, television, and the internet(Jaccard, Dodge, & Dittus 2002).

Moreover, prime time television shows contain sexual content up to 80% percent. The internet can even

be called as an perilous sex educator. According to the survey, 10 to17 year old teens from U.S., more

than 40 percent viewed online pornographic websites, and almost 70 percent accidentally saw images

they did not plan to view on the internet(Wolak, Mitchelle, & Finkelhor (2007). Also, advertisement for

teens to look daily, like at the newspaper, magazine, and even be on social networking sites, involves

media as a big part. Further, sex appeal is used to advertise products in variety of ways too. Those

distinctive advertising or media are driving teens in the wrong direction and very improper. In addition,

the risks can be increased with the individual behaviour too. For instance, over-sharing information on the

internet turn into another influential issue for adolescent, as they forget to protect their own

privacy(Durlofsky, n.d.). The habit is altered to routinely share private and sensitive information to the

public, and all those information is easily accessible by any people on the internet, including deceitful

person.

Prevention

Even though the internet is superb, it also comes with harms(Staying Safe Online, 2014). Thus, it

is important to know how to use it in proper ways, in order to keep you safe from any dangers and its

effects on your behavior. The major method for protecting teenagers is to be conscious every time they

are using social media. An article entitled How to Be Safe on the Internet from the website of wikihow

gave one example of those significant methods which is to try to be mindful when users agree terms

during the process of downloading or installing any new programs. Also, limit the time spent and
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information shared on any social media are essential too. In the internet world, there are full of

untrustworthy strangers, and it would be great if we can decrease the unnecessary deep contact and

connection with people on the internet; be careful of the person you are chatting to, think before posting

anything, never share your personal identities or any passwords to anybody online. The more we spend

time on using social media, the more opportunity to mistakenly raise some risks, like the risk of getting

pregnant while in teenage.

Conclusion

This research report explained how social media can increase the risk of teen pregnancy. This

research report concluded that media influence is one of the most significant causes of pregnancy among

teenagers. The use of social media could become a risk for teenagers more than they and their parents

could realize. The internet could even be called as a perilous sex educator. Sex is introduced to most of

the adolescents through media sites. Based on the survey, over 40 percent of 10 to 17-year-old teens from

U.S. view online pornographic websites, and almost 70 percent accidentally saw inappropriate pictures on

the internet. This research report recommends further studies on how social media is influencing students

behavior.
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References

Amornviputpanich, P. (2016, April 16). New legislation covering teenage pregnancy to take effect
in July. Retrieved March 24, 2017, from
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/aec/30284085

Evers, C. W., K. A., P. B., & K. C. (2011, February 14). Young People, Social Media,
Social Network Sites and Sexual Health Communication in Australia: This is Funny, You
Should Watch It. Retrieved March 27, 2017, from
http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1106/853

Hasinoff, A. A. (2012, September 23). Sexting as media production:

Rethinking social media and sexuality. Retrieved March 23, 2017, from
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444812459171

Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2011, August 29). Online Social Networking and Addiction-
A Review of the Psychological Literature. Retrieved March 23, 2017, from
http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/9/3528/htm?hc_location=ufi

MD., B. S. (2014). Thai Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Thailand Adolescent Birth Rate:
Trend and Related Indicators, 24, 15-21. Retrieved March 24, 2017, from
http://www.rtcog.or.th/html/photo/journalfile_393100.pdf

O'Keeffe, G. S., & Clarke-Pearson, K. (2011, April 01). The Impact of Social Media on
Children, Adolescents, and Families. Retrieved March 23, 2017, from
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/800.full

S. L. (2008, June 1). Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers' use of
social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression. Retrieved March 27, 2017, from
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444808089415

Ybarra, M. L., & Mitchell, K. J. (2008, February 01). How Risky Are Social Networking Sites?
A Comparison of Places Online Where Youth Sexual Solicitation and Harassment Occurs.
Retrieved March 24, 2017, from
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/121/2/e350.long?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medi
um=TrendMD&utm_campaign=Pediatrics_TrendMD_0