The US Surgeon General issued an advisory in late May suggesting that children and adolescents are over-using social media, and that this poses a risk of harm to their health and mental well-being. As many as 95% of teenagers aged 13-17 reported they used social media regularly, while as many as a third of teenagers reported they were on social media “almost constantly.” Observing that the teenage years support rapid brain and emotional development, Dr. Vivek Murthy said that “we are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address.”
The Surgeon General’s advisory contains several practical suggestions for making social media safer for children and teenagers. Policymakers should develop safety standards and find ways to limit access to harmful social media. Technology companies should become more aware of the negative impacts of their social media platforms and work with other stakeholders to improve systems to provide greater safety for child and teenage users. Parents and caregivers should become more aware of the nature and level of their children’s social media use and establish realistic guidelines for its use. Surgeon General Murthy intends to prohibit his own children from accessing social media until they are at least 13 years old, but may reconsider that decision and wait until they are 16 years old. Children and teenagers can raise their own self-awareness about how much and which social media they participate in, and learn to self-regulate their exposure to it. Finally, researchers should prioritize social media and youth mental health research to inform the development of best practices for social media use.
The American Psychological Association has recently issued its own health advisory on the harm of teenagers’ use of social media, highlighting the need for fostering social media literacy and digital citizenship. Digital citizenship curriculum materials developed in conjunction with the Harvard School of Education are available for just this purpose. Common Sense Education offers lessons plans and activities by grade level (K-12). The curriculum for grades K-2 addresses questions such as: How do we balance our time with technology? How do you stay safe online? What footprints are you leaving online? What are ways you can be kind online? How do you stand up for people you care about? How do you know something you hear or see is true?
It's been a very long time since I was in second grade. But I think I’d learn a lot from this curriculum. Our children’s mental health future depends on all of us raising our awareness about the benefits and pitfalls of social media use, and taking steps to manage it wisely.
