Social Media Damages Teens Mental Health

Here’s what parents, teachers and teens can do

Photo by Daisy-Daisy

In June, US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, MD, called on Congress to issue a warning label for social media, similar to warning labels on alcohol and tobacco. He also called on Congress to quickly develop health and safety standards for technology platforms, including not collecting sensitive data from teens, and restricting features, like push notifications, autoplay, and infinite scroll, which contribute to excessive use of social media.

Dr. Murthy says that social media is an important contributor to the mental health crisis among young people. On average, teens spend 4.8 hours a day on social media. A 2019 study of 6,595 US teens found that those who spend more than three hours a day on social media may be at heightened risk for mental health problems, particularly for keeping their problems to themselves. In addition, 46% of teens say that social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.

Photo by chameleonseye

How to protect teens

Here are some suggestions from Dr. Vivek and others:

For parents:

• Wait at least until middle school to allow children access to social media. The Wait Until 8th pledge suggests parents delay even longer, waiting to give children a smartphone until at least the end of 8th grade.
• Work together with other parents to establish shared rules.
• Work with teens to set a daily time limit for social media use.
• Create phone-free zones around bedtime, meals and social gatherings.
• Choose one day a month when no texting is allowed.
• Set a limit on the number of apps teens can use.
• Keep phones out of the bedroom. Charge them in the kitchen overnight.
• Consider a “dumb” phone without internet access.
• Watch the film, The Social Dilemma, with your children.
• Read The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt, which argues that smartphones should be banned in schools, 12 should be the minimum age to own one and 16 the minimum age to access social media.
• Read about one UK mom’s experiment in which she banned the cell phones of her son’s and their friends for one month and then sent them on a wild camping trip. She is responding to Haidt’s identification of “safetyism” as another contributor to the teen mental health crisis. He says that societal anxiety about safety has confined children indoors and denied them the physical freedom of childhood.
• Read the report from Common Sense Media, “Getting Help Online: How Young People Find, Evaluate, and Use Mental Health Apps, Online Therapy, and Behavioral Health Information.”
• Read the report from Yale School of Medicine, “How Social Media Affects Your Teen’s Mental Health: A Parent’s Guide.”
• Sign the petition from Parents Together calling on Congress to approve Dr. Vivek’s health warning on social media.
• Join Smartphone Free Childhood, an engaged community of over 100,000 parents on a mission to change the cultural norm that children are given smartphones and challenge Big Tech’s ever-increasing colonization of childhood.

For schools

• Teach children social media literacy.
• Ensure that classroom learning, and social time are phone-free experiences.
• According to Pew Research, 72% of high school teachers say students being distracted by their cellphones in the classroom is a major problem.
• 68% of parents think students should not be allowed to use their cell phones during class.
• The day after Dr. Vivek’s warning, the Los Angeles Unified School District board of education voted to ban students from using smartphones during the school day. Governor Gavin Newson wants to work with the state legislature to restrict smartphone use in all California schools.
• The movement to ban cell phones in schools is gaining momentum. The Netherlands has banned them since the beginning of 2024. In France, a trial ban on cell phones for pupils up the age of 15 will be implemented nationwide in January if the trial is successful. Italy, Germany and Great Britain are considering cell phone restrictions.
• In 2023, Florida became the first US state to ban cell phone use in class. In 2024, Indiana, Louisiana, and South Carolina banned cell phone use in public schools. In July, Virginia Governor Glen Youngkin signed an Executive Order limiting or banning cell phone use in public schools.
• Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, and Washington are currently considering cell phone bans.
• In May, the Minnesota and Ohio legislatures required that schools implement cell phone policies.
• Pennsylvania enacted a law to restrict students’ use of cellphones during the school day and allocated $100 million for a pilot program to award grants to schools to purchase lockable smartphone bags. Delaware earmarked $250,000 for the Department of Education to implement a pilot program focused on the use of lockable phone pouches. In Switzerland, however, students simply drop their phones off into a simple wooden box at the front of their classroom.
• In the United Kingdom, boys at Eton will be allowed only “dumb phones” in September 2024.

For medical professionals

• Doctors, nurses and other clinicians should raise the issue of social media with kids and parents and guide them toward safer practices.

For teens

• Join the LOG OFF Movement, created in 2020 by then high school senior, Emma Lembke, in response to her personal struggle with social media and its negative impact on her mental health, and to the absence of youth voices in the dialogue surrounding social media advocacy. The LOG OFF movement’s “Guide to Improve Screen Time” takes an in depth look at some tools to help improve screen time and be more productive.
• Use resources from Wired Human, which aims to protect children from online harm and exploitation through digital leadership training programs, research, and elevating the voices of youth to advance digital responsibility.

Photo by doble-d

This is sobering information for parents, and it may seem impossible to curb your teens social media use in the face of their addiction to it. However, by using these resources and joining together with other parents and the teachers at your teen’s school, you can find the confidence to do what needs to be done to protect your child. It’s up to you and you can make a difference. Your child will thank you.

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