Social media: A sharp warning of risks to teens
America’s top doctor has made it clear that parents need to get their kids off social media, said Jill Filipovic in CNN.com. In a grave report last week, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy “warned of myriad dangers from social media platforms designed to be as addictive as possible.” This addiction isn’t healthy, Murthy said, and “it’s especially dangerous for young people.” Up to 95 percent of kids ages 13 to 17 are on social media, with a third of them saying “they use social media ‘almost constantly.’” Two-fifths of younger kids, ages 8 to 12, are also increasingly online. There is ample evidence that social media usage is “associated with distinct changes in the developing brain.” It’s “no coincidence that adolescent mental health has declined as smartphones have proliferated.” Our kids are suffering.
Parents can’t be the only ones responsible for policing their children’s online activity, said Barbara Ortutay in the Associated Press. If teen social media use poses the kinds of dangers Murthy describes, then “policymakers need to address the harms of social media the same way they regulate things like car seats, baby formula, medication, and other products children use.” Treating this as a nationwide public health crisis has the potential to move the needle, said Taylor Hatmaker in TechCrunch. The advisories of past surgeons general “have reshaped the national dialogue around health threats like smoking and drunk driving.” Surgeon General Murthy has specifically “recommended higher standards for youth data privacy” and “enforced age minimums.”
There’s already a “veritable cacophony of calls for increased restrictions” on kids’ and teens’ social media use, and the surgeon general is just joining the parade, said Robby Soave in Reason. Most research on the negative side of social media “centers around a narrow cohort—teenage girls—” and is mostly confined to Instagram. Hidden in Murthy’s own report is plenty of data on the other side: 58 percent of teens actually say social media “makes them feel more accepted,” and 71 percent say it lets them show their “creative side.” Yet the critics, ignoring teens’ “First Amendment–protected speech” rights, call for a “massive government undertaking” to impose restrictions.
What this report actually demands is not an immediate ban but more data, said Lisa Jarvis in Bloomberg. “There are yawning gaps in our knowledge of social media’s effects,” mainly because the companies have resisted transparency. That’s where lawmakers can step in immediately, ensuring platforms “share data relevant to the health impact of their platforms with independent researchers and the public.” If social media companies are so confident that their products aren’t harmful, they should have nothing to hide.