USA warns that social networks can harm young people – 05/24/2023 – Health

The United States’ top health authority issued an extraordinary public warning on Tuesday (23) about the risks of social media for young people, urging an effort to fully understand the possible “damage to the mental health and well-being of children and teenagers”.

In a 19-page statement, US Surgeon General (Secretary of Health) Vivek Murthy noted that the effects of social media on adolescent mental health are not fully understood and that they may be beneficial for some users. However, he wrote, “there is ample evidence that social media may also have a profound risk of harming the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”

The report included practical recommendations to help families guide children through social media use. It recommended that families keep meals and in-person gatherings free of electronic devices to help build social bonds and promote conversation. It suggested creating a “family media plan” to define expectations for using the social network, including limits on content and keeping personal information private.

Murthy also called on tech companies to impose minimum age limits and create settings for children with high standards of safety and privacy. And he called on the government to create age-appropriate health and safety standards for technology platforms.

Teenagers “are not just smaller adults,” Murthy said in an interview on Monday (22). “They are at a different stage of development and a critical stage of brain development.”

The report, which effectively bolsters longstanding concerns about social media in the national conversation, comes as state and federal lawmakers, many of them raised in an era when social media barely existed or did not exist, debate how to set limits on its use.

Montana’s governor recently signed a bill banning TikTok from operating in the state, prompting the Chinese-owned app to file a lawsuit and its young users to lament what one called a “kick in the face.” In March, Utah became the first US state to ban social networking services from allowing anyone under 18 to have accounts without explicit parental or guardian consent. This law could drastically reduce young people’s access to apps like Instagram and Facebook.

Survey results from Pew Research found that up to 95% of teens reported using at least one social media platform, while more than a third said they used social media “nearly constantly”. As social media use increased, so did self-descriptions and clinical diagnoses of anxiety and depression among adolescents, along with emergency room admissions for self-harm and suicidal ideation.

The report could help encourage further research to understand whether these two trends are related. It joins a growing number of calls for measures linked to teenagers and social media. This month, the American Psychological Association issued its first-ever guidance for social media, recommending that parents closely monitor teen use and that tech companies reconsider features like infinite scrolling and the “like” button.

A large body of research has emerged in recent years on the potential connection between social media use and rising rates of distress among adolescents. But the results were consistent only in their nuances and complexity.

An analysis published last year, examining research from 2019 to 2021 on social media use and mental health, found that “most analyzes interpreted the associations between social media use and mental health as ‘weak’ or ‘inconsistent’, while some qualified the same associations as ‘substantial’ and ‘harmful'”.

In its clearest form, the data indicate that social media can have both a positive and negative impact on young people’s well-being, and that heavy social media use – and screen time in general – appears to displace activities such as sleep and exercises, considered vital for brain development.

On the bright side, social networking can help many young people by giving them a space to connect with others, find community and express themselves.

At the same time, the Surgeon General’s warning noted, social media platforms are rife with “radical, inappropriate, and harmful content,” including content that “may normalize” self-harm, eating disorders, and other self-destructive behaviors. “Cyberbullying” is rampant.

Furthermore, social networking spaces can be especially stressful for young people, the statement added: “In early adolescence, when identities and sense of self-worth are forming, brain development is especially susceptible to social pressures, opinions and peer comparisons”.

The advisory noted that technology companies have a vested interest in keeping users online and use tactics that trick people into engaging in addiction-like behavior. “Social networking platforms are often designed to maximize user engagement, which has the potential to encourage overuse and behavioral dysregulation.”

“Our children have become unwitting participants in a decades-long experiment,” the statement reads.

Research increasingly indicates that some young people are more susceptible than others to harm and different types of content.

In the statement, Murthy expressed an “urgent need” for clarity on several research fronts. This includes the types of social media content that cause harm; whether specific neurological pathways, such as those involving reward and addiction, are affected; and what strategies could be used to protect the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.

The statement did not provide guidance on what the healthy use of social media looks like, nor did it condemn its use by all young people. Instead, it concluded, “We still don’t have enough evidence to determine whether social media is safe enough for children and teens.”

In an interview on Monday, Murthy acknowledged that lack of clarity is a heavy burden for individuals and families to carry.

“It’s asking a lot of parents to look at a new technology that is rapidly evolving and fundamentally changing the way children perceive themselves,” said Murthy. “So we have to do what we do in other areas where we have product safety issues, which is to establish safety standards that parents can trust, and that are actually enforced.”