Social media presents a profound risk of harm for kids
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy continues his strong warnings against letting kids and young teens use social media. “We’re in the middle of a youth mental health crisis, and I’m concerned that social media is contributing to the harm that kids are experiencing,” he said.
Imagine a car company releasing a brand new car without testing its features or making sure it's safe. It would never happen today, right?
But it used to, before people got upset and demanded standards.
And that's what's happened with social media platforms and teens. Brand new platforms were built over the past 20 years, without many safety standards, and they invited teens to join (and if you're younger - wink, wink - you can get on too!). This new kind of connection online was exciting and parents assumed platforms had been vetted and were safe.
But the platforms weren't vetted or safe for kids.
In fact, they were harmful, manipulated kids into spending excessive time on them and exposed them to horrible content.
And they kept adding new features that preyed on young people's vulnerabilities - the "like" button that led to popularity comparisons, anonymous apps that led to severe cyberbullying and AI chatbots that lack the human ability to give kids good advice. And don't forget the algorithms that study what you'll stop scrolling and watch - even if it's harmful content.
Fast forward a decade or two and we're paying the price with a mental health crisis.
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s latest warning
This week the US Surgeon General released advisory notes which concluded that social media use presents “a profound risk of harm” for kids. It calls for increased research into social media’s impact on youth mental health, as well as action from policymakers and technology companies.
“We must acknowledge the growing body of research about potential harms, increase our collective understanding of the risks associated with social media use, and urgently take action to create safe and healthy digital environments,” the advisory says.
The advisory includes research on the effects of social media on youth mental health, noting that social media use among kids is “nearly universal”.
Up to 95% of kids ages 13 to 17 report using social media, with more than a third saying they use it “almost constantly.”
Although 13 is the minimum age to use social media sites in the US (an age Murthy has previously said is too young), the advisory notes that nearly 40% of kids ages 8 to 12 use the platforms.
Nearly every teenager in America uses social media, and yet we do not have enough evidence to conclude that it is sufficiently safe for them,” the Surgeon General writes. “Our children have become unknowing participants in a decades-long experiment. It is critical that independent researchers and technology companies work together to rapidly advance our understanding of the impact of social media on children and adolescents.”
The harms to youth mental health listed in the report:
Correlations between social media use and depression and anxiety
Correlations between social media and body image concerns and eating disorders
Poor sleep - platforms are designed to keep users engaged through notifications, daily “streaks”, autoplay, infinite scrolling
Online harassment and cyberbullying
Low self-esteem, particularly for girls
Dangerous content, including self-harm, which can normalize such behaviors
Algorithms that use the user’s data and preferences to customize content they see
The rewards built into social media can cause excessive stimulation to the brain’s reward centers and “can trigger pathways comparable to addiction”
One study of kids ages 12-15 found that those who spent more than 3 hours a day on social media had twice the risk of symptoms of depression and anxiety as non-users, the report notes. It also cites studies that found reducing social media use led to improvements in mental health.
Another study reports 64% of adolescents are “often” or “sometimes” exposed to hate-based content through social media, one-third of girls aged 11-15 say they feel “addicted” to certain social media platforms, and over half of teenagers report that it would be hard to give up social media.
We would never purposely let anyone experiment on our kids or expose them to this kind of content. Never!
But that’s what’s happened with a generation of young people.
A brand new type of internet company called “social media” sprung up and we didn’t understand the risks and dangers and they weren’t about to share the data they were seeing about the harms they were causing.
Now we do understand and there is enough evidence to correlate social media usage to declining mental health.
It is time for action. Time to demand standards and rules for social media platforms. Time to demand accountability from platforms for the harms they’re distributing and amplifying through their algorithms.
As the Surgeon General said: “For too long, we have placed the entire burden of managing social media on the shoulders of parents and kids, despite the fact that these platforms are designed by some of the most talented engineers and designers in the world to maximize the amount of time that our kids spend on them. So that is not a fair fight. It’s time for us to have the backs of parents and kids.”
Not only is it not a fair fight; it’s not one parents have the safety settings, tools and training to succeed, because they haven’t been built by the platforms yet.
Murthy said we should hold social media companies to similar standards for protecting children as other industries are. “We take this approach of safety first with other products that kids use, from medications to car seats to toys,” Murthy said. “We need to do it here, too.”
Guess who is also a Dad? Our Surgeon General - he’s got 5 and 6 year olds at home and he’s committed to protecting them and their peers. This is good news!
What can we do?
The advisory has separated proposed actions into categories: policymakers, technology companies, parents and caregivers, researchers and children and adolescents. (The statements in italics marks are all mine.)
No mention of schools and the powerful presence they have in the lives of young people.
Policymakers
Give us standards through national legislation!
Strengthen protections for kids on social media. I’d go further than this and require “duty of care” language. Tech companies should have priority #1 be minors’ mental health and safety. Above profits, features, anything else. Kids first.
Develop age-appropriate health and safety standards
Require data privacy for kids
Require tech companies to share data on the health impact of their platforms
Require education for kids in digital and media literacy
Technology companies
Take responsibility for the environment you’ve created!
Become transparent and allow independent assessments of your platforms. I’d take it one step further, as a CPA, and say - You need to allow independent health and safety audits, not assessments.
Share data and algorithms with independent researchers and the public
Prioritize user health and safety and design platforms that foster safe and healthy online environments for youth. I’d go further - See my comments on “duty of care” above.
Enforce the age minimums
Use the highest safety and privacy standards by default. I’d add - And don’t give kids the ability to turn off safety features.
Create a system to effectively handle reports of dangers, abuse, harmful content, cyberbullying. I’d add - There should be humans involved in the process and clear Terms of Service that are followed and results of investigations should be shared with the person who reports.
Two important things were not addressed here:
Features like disappearing messages that make it almost impossible for law enforcement and others to investigate harms - they should not be offered to kids and teens.
Safety and parental controls should be developed to filter harmful content, limit time on the app and monitor behavior, including parental alerts when a minor’s safety and mental or physical health is concerned.
Parents and caregivers
Stay involved as a leader and influencer in your child’s life! All of these ideas are covered in our “Digital Milestones Guidebook” here.
Create a “family media plan” to list your expectations (aka a “Technology Contract”. Sidenote - the most successful Tech Contracts are written as a family, not dictated by adults.)
Create “tech-free zones”
Model responsible behavior online
Teach kids about technology, both the benefits and risks
Help kids report cyberbullying, nude or explicit photos and online abuse. Visit CyberTipline, Take it Down, or contact your local law enforcement to report any instances of online exploitation.
Create communities of parents to establish group norms and standards for healthy tech use
Three important idea not addressed here:
Help kids reduce screen time. It’s going to be hard at first, they’ve developed some bad habits and they will need your guidance. We’ve got a training that gives parents a script to use when introducing the concept of reducing time online (it can be scary!), provides a list of 100+ activities kids can do offline and helps kids set some goals with a Goal Sheet.
Delay giving smartphones until 13 years old and access to social media until at least 13, although research shows benefits in delaying until after middle school (15-16 years old).
Parents should band together and demand several things:
accountability from tech companies to take responsibility for what they’ve built so far, and build safer apps without health and safety design flaws for kids in the future
robust parental controls features from social media platforms to help parents “see” the dangerous issues online and protect their kids
education for themselves and their kids in digital and media literacy skills
Children and Adolescents
Kids should be kids! Stay away from social media until 13+ years old. Teens should be aware social media platforms are manipulating them, stealing their privacy and profiting from their mental health crisis.
Reach out for help. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988 for immediate help. I would add - have a list of trusted adults that you can talk with - parents, teachers, coaches, religious leaders.
Create boundaries to limit technology usage
Develop healthy strategies for awareness of where you’re spending time online
Be cautious about what you share
Protect yourself and others against harassment, trolling, rumors, nudes. Get help when you need it and don’t harass or bully others.
I would add two things:
get familiar with your privacy, location and safety settings and make sure you’re using the most protective settings
take regular detox breaks, every day and for one day a week
Researchers
Help us understand the brain science of exposing kids to social media platforms and how to help them recover from the harms!
Establish the impact of social media on youth mental health, both the benefits and harms, and study specific aspects such as design choices, feature rollouts and algorithms used
Help develop standards and best practices
The missing key player in the report - Schools
Help students from kindergarten through high school learn social emotional skills, practice kindness and develop digital and media literacy skills! (Clearly I would add schools to this report.) Here are some thoughts on how schools can help:
Develop rigorous training for student, teacher and parent education in digital and media literacy
Reduce dependence on 1:1 screens during school time
Ban cell phones on campus K-8th grade - let students have downtime from the pressure of screens and reduce the likelihood of cyberbullying. Reduce cell phone access in high schools.
Help parents band together to change norms around screen time and make screen-free time happen daily