Health Advisory Issued On Social Media Use By Children, Teens

ACROSS AMERICA — Armed with research showing anxiety, depression and loneliness among adolescents and teenagers increased in the pandemic, the American Psychological Association on Tuesday issued its first-ever health advisory on social media use among youth.

Based on the latest science about social media, the report is aimed at parents, teachers, policymakers and members of the tech industry “who share responsibility to ensure adolescents’ well-being.”

The American Psychological Association’s 10 recommendations are focused heavily on parents. They stress the benefits of social media literacy training before kids set up accounts, and periodic refreshers on applications and uses that both minimize the harm and maximize the benefits social media can provide.

“Just as we require young people to be trained in order to get a driver’s license, our youth need instruction in the safe and healthy use of social media,” psychologist Thema Bryant, the group’s president, said in a statement.

Importantly, the report notes that social media is neither inherently harmful nor beneficial to teens and adolescents. But because they mature at different rates, some kids are more vulnerable than others to social media content and features that have been demonstrated by science to influence healthy development, Bryant said.

Studies have found anxiety among kids worldwide more than doubled during the pandemic due to COVID-related stressors such as social isolation, missed milestones and increased family tension, but also by political and social unrest around them.

Loneliness in particular poses health risks as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said last week when he declared it a public health epidemic. The loneliness epidemic is hitting young people, ages 15 to 24, especially hard. The age group reported a 70 percent drop in time spent with friends in the first year of the pandemic.

The American Psychological Association report is careful to note that research has not confirmed a direct link between social media and harmful behaviors by adolescents and teens

The recommendations come as parents, policymakers and others struggle with “what to do around social media,” American Psychological Association CEO Arthur Evans Jr. told NPR.

The recommendations encourage parents to keep tabs on what kind of content their kids are accessing, and limit exposure to sites that encourage self-harm, eating disorders and other risky behaviors or those promoting discrimination, prejudice, hate or cyberbullying.

• Related: ‘The Menace Of Bullies’: A Patch Reporting Project

Parents should also keep track of how much time their kids are spending on social media, and whether it’s keeping them from other activities. Problematic use can interfere with kids’ sleep or physical activity, both of which are required for healthy brain and psychological development.

Another recommendation deals with limits on the time adolescents spend on sites with primarily beauty- or appearance-related content.

The group also called for “a substantial investment in research funding” and access to more data, including data from tech companies.

Parents need more cooperation from tech companies and possibly regulators, Robert Keane, a psychologist at Walden Behavioral Care, an inpatient facility that helps teens with eating disorders, told NPR.

“We’re in a crisis here and a family’s ability or a parent’s ability to manage this right now is very limited,” he said. “Families really need help.”

In his February State of the Union address, President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass bipartisan legislation that would “finally hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit.”

Several House and Senate bills to make the internet safer for children have been introduced by lawmakers who site numerous examples of teenagers who have taken their lives after cyberbullying or died engaging in dangerous behavior encouraged on social media.

• Related: Congress Weighs New Rules For Tech