- Social media platforms have been criticized for contributing to mental health problems among children and teens.
- Now the US Surgeon General has called this an emergency and called for immediate action.
Social media platforms have long been criticized for contributing significantly to mental health issues among people, especially children and teens. Now, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy has called the mental health crisis that social media is contributing to among young people an emergency and called for urgent action.
Murthy said adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media are at double the risk of experiencing depression and anxiety. Gallup PollAs of summer 2023, this age group was using it for an average of 4.8 hours per day. Additionally, 46% of teens say social media causes them to have a negative image of their body.
This means it may be time to place Surgeon General’s warning labels on social media platforms, providing regular reminders to adolescents and their parents of the potential harm they can cause. It may also elicit a positive response, as borne out by a survey of Latino parents, where 76% of parents said the labels would cause them to monitor or limit their children’s social media use.
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Everyone has a role to play
According to Murthy, warning labels in themselves do not make social media safer for young people. Policymakers, platforms, and the public should follow expert recommendations to make social media safer. Regulation should protect young people from harassment, exploitation, abuse, and extremely violent or sexual content. It should also prevent platforms from collecting sensitive content from children and restrict certain features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling.
Several US states have recently Sued Meta purposefully created features to get kids addicted to the platform. Plans to ban Prevent social media platforms from using algorithms to control teen content without parental consent, the Irish Data Protection Commission said in 2022. Fine Meta Instagram’s €405 million fine for mishandling teenagers’ data. While these are steps in the right direction, more proactive measures are needed to protect young people’s mental health.
Meanwhile, platforms will be required to share data on health effects with the public and independent scientists, and allow safety audits.
The public also has a role to play: schools need to ensure social times and classroom learning are phone-free; parents should create phone-free zones around meals, social gatherings and bedtimes; and young people can support each other in rebuilding their relationships with social media platforms and using them safely.
Murthy recommends that public health leaders advocate for healthy digital environments for young people, and mental health professionals should discuss social media issues with young people and their parents to guide them toward safer practices.
Safety measures are needed now
Currently, there are few safety measures regarding social media. Both parents and young people struggle to find ways to stay safe on social media platforms. Moreover, managing social media exposure is stressful and even embarrassing for many parents. Governments, countries and companies have the resources, tools and expertise to make social media safer for young people. It is time for governments to work with social media companies and people to implement appropriate safety measures. All that is needed is the will to act. Governments need to treat this issue as a health emergency and work with companies, educators and mental health experts to develop effective strategies and promote healthy use of social media.
