Earlier this week an oddly named new social media platform, Squag, caught my attention. This new website tailors its features specifically to young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Squag is centred on its users and their parents; it is ‘driven by kids, supported by parents.’ Some features it boasts to accomplish this task are a focus on one-on-one communications, a strict filter to block inappropriate content and over-sharing of personal information and strong parental controls. In its mission statement Squag encourages autistic teens to use other social media but asserts its service is the only one to giver users ‘a chance to self reflect before they reach out to their peers.’ This is an admirable endeavour but it got me thinking about what mainstream social media platforms are doing to include special needs users.
A quick Google search highlights some of the benefits wider social media has for kids with ASDs and their families. Posting on The Facebook Blog, Barbara Fischkin, mother of an autistic 21 year old, praised Facebook for its accessibility and her son Dan ‘responded better to Facebook than to any other communication-typing program, even those put out by educational scholars.’ Jean Winegardner, another mother with an autistic son, believes social media acts as ‘a lifeline’ for parents with autistic children, and the children themselves. Social media is being used by those affected by ASDs to share information and support each other. @autism on twitter or SocialMoms.net, which hosts a group for mothers with autistic children, are two touching examples of this. Clearly, social media is a positive tool for those with ASDs and their families and with specialist platforms like Squag providing an experience of social media tailored for people with autism does anymore really need to be done?
A recent study published in the Journal of Autism Developmental Disorders suggests it does. The study found that while children with ASDs responded favourably to screen-based media they were not participating in social media and spent most of their time playing solo video games. The online habits of 1000 young people with special educational needs were recorded and it was found the majority of autistic children participating in the study did not use social media at all. Horror stories of autistic kids being banned from Facebook for actions being misinterpreted as harassment cannot be encouraging parents of children of ASDs to get their kids online. Despite this Paul Shattuck, part of the team of professors at Washington University in St. Louis who conducted the study, is hopeful for the future. He told Futurity that the positive response to screen-based media from children with ASDs ‘might be turned into something we can take advantage of to enhance social skills and learning achievement, especially recent innovations in devices like iPads.’ Social media has a role to play in this.
Squag is an innovative idea that will hopefully prove a great benefit to users of social media with autism and their parents. However, for autistic kids to get the most out of social media they must be given the opportunity to participate in the bigger social media platforms. Social media organisations can be proud that the services they currently provide are helping families that are affected by ASDs. But as the aforementioned study shows, a dialogue between experts on ASDs, parents with autistic children and the kids themselves is needed to ensure social media is social for everyone.
