Social Media-Contributed Mental Health Crisis Among Youngsters Is an Emergency: Surgeon General
Social media platforms have been criticized for contributing to mental health issues in children and teenagers. Now, Vivek H. Murthy, surgeon general of the United States, has called it an emergency and called for immediate action.
- Social media platforms have been criticized for contributing to mental health issues in children and teenagers.
- Now, the surgeon general of the United States has called it an emergency and called for immediate action.
Social media platforms have been criticized for a long time for significantly contributing to mental health issues in people, especially children and teenagers. Now, Vivek H. Murthy, surgeon general of the United States, has called social media-contributed mental health crisis among youngsters an emergency and has called for immediate action.
Murthy said that adolescents spending over three hours a day on social media face twice the risk of depression and anxiety symptoms. According to a Gallup study, the average daily use among this age group was 4.8 hours as of the summer of 2023. Further, 46% of adolescents say that social media makes them have a negative image of their bodies.
This means it may be time to put a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms. This can regularly remind adolescents and parents that social media platforms can potentially cause harm. It may also have a positive response, as supported by a study of Latino parents, where 76% of parents agreed the label would prompt them to monitor or limit their children’s social media use.
See more: Ethical Considerations in Mental Health Tech: Balancing Innovation With Responsibility
Everyone Has a Role To Play
According to Murthy, a warning label itself may not make social media safer for youngsters. Policymakers, platforms, and the public should follow expert recommendations to make social media safer. Regulations should protect youngsters from harassment, exploitation, abuse, and extremely violent or sexual content. They should also prevent platforms from collecting sensitive content from children and restrict certain features like autoplay and infinite scroll.
Several states in the US recently sued Meta for deliberately creating features that addict children to its platforms. Further, New York plans to prohibit social media platforms from using algorithms to control teen content without parental consent. In 2022, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission fined Meta €405 million for mishandling teenagers’ data on Instagram. While these are a few steps in the right direction, more proactive steps are needed to protect young people’s mental health.
Meanwhile, platforms should share their data on health effects with the public and independent scientists and allow safety audits.
The public, too, has a role to play. Schools should ensure that social time and classroom learning are phone-free. Parents should create phone-free zones around meals, social gatherings, and bedtime. Young people can support each other in reforming their relationships with social media platforms and navigating them safely.
Murthy recommends that public health leaders demand healthy digital environments for youngsters. Mental health professionals should discuss the issue of social media with young people and parents and guide them toward safer practices.
Safety Measures Are the Need of the Hour
Currently, there are very few safety measures around social media. Both parents and young people struggle to figure out how to stay safe on social media platforms. Further, managing social media exposure can be stressful and even shameful for many parents. Governments, countries, and companies have the resources, tools, and expertise to make social media safer for young people. It is high time governments work with social media companies and people to implement adequate safety measures. All that is required is the will to act. Governments should treat the problem as a health emergency and collaborate with companies, educators, and mental health professionals to develop effective strategies and promote healthy social media use.
