UK doctors call for access to social media

● Psychiatrists need data to research the impact on children’s mental health

Leading UK psychiatrists say they will never understand the risks and benefits of social media use on children’s mental health unless companies hand over their data to researchers.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists said a proposed 2 per cent levy on the UK revenues of major tech companies does not go far enough.

Instead it wants the socalled “turnover tax” to apply to international turnover and for some of the money from it to be used for mental health research.

Concerns about the impact of social media on vulnerbe able people come amid suicides such as that of 14-yearold schoolgirl Molly Russell in 2017. The teenager was found to have viewed harmful content online.

Her father Ian Russell, who believes Instagram was partly responsible for his daughter taking her life, is backing the calls.

While welcoming the UK Government’s White Paper on online harms, the college’s report calls for an independent regulator with powers to able to establish a protocol for the sharing of data from social media companies with universities for research, such as behavioural data.

It also points to evidence that increased social media use may result in poorer mental health, particularly in girls.

Dr Bernadka Dubicka, chairwoman of the child and adolescent faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and co-author of the report, said: “As a psychiatrist working on the front line, I am seeing more and more children self-harming and attempting suicide as a result of their social media use and online discussions.

“We will never understand the risks and benefits of social media use unless the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram share their data with researchers.

“Their research will help shine a light on how young people are interacting with social media, not just how much time they spend online.

“Self-regulation is not working. It is time for Government to step up and take decisive action to hold social media companies to account for escalating harmful content to vulnerable children and young people.” Claire Murdoch, NHS national director for mental health, said: “If these tech giants really want to be a force for good, put a premium on their users well-being and take their responsibilities seriously, then they should do all that they can to help researchers better understand how they operate and the risks posed – until then they cannot confidently say whether the good outweighs the bad.”

The biggest social network, Facebook, said it was “already taking a number of the steps recommended” in the report.

“We remove harmful content from our platforms and provide support for those who search for it,” a spokesman said.

“We are working closely with organisations such as the Samaritans and the Government to develop industry guidelines in this area.”