Social Media and Teens Mental Health
The importance of age restrictions on social media
The swell of concern by parents and grandparents around the impact of social media on children and young adolescents has been heard. This week in the news we learn the Albanese government is on plan to ban under-16’s from social media platforms. This move will help young people re-engage in healthy prosocial behaviour such as increased face to face interaction.
In his well researched book The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt (2024) describes the enabling of social media as a kin to releasing children into Mars. Would parents let their children go to Mars? I assume not (although, there may be days when this seems like a good idea!). But seriously, social media is just this - a place not suitable for adequate mental growth for the young. But children are there already.
Social Media and Gen Z
Glancing through history at the generations, research suggest Gen Z (born between 1995 - 2010) are the first generation of adolescents to have significant increases in anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide, and lower face to face interaction with friends. They are the first generation in history to go through puberty with a portal in their pockets, that as Haidt notes, ‘‘enticed them away from people nearby and into an alternative universe that was exciting, addictive, and unstable.’’ Much like Mars.
Haidt notes there was an observable transition from play-based childhood to phone-based childhood after 2010. With the provision of smart phones and the introduction of Instagram and other social media platforms, children moved to online interactions with peers and strangers. Their parents believing they were safer inside than outside playing in the streets, unaware or ignorant of the dangers online. Along with online predators and targeted curated algorithms, there is perhaps the most powerful harm to teenage mental health - peer judgement on steroids and the opinions of complete strangers that can frequently matter more than their own.
Data from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health show that the percentage of teenagers who had at least one major depressive episode in the past year has increased by 145% for girls, and 161% for boys, since 2010. The percentage of individuals reporting high levels of anxiety by age group rose 139% for ages 18-25 from 2010, the sharpest and highest rise of all age groups. The rate per 100,000 in the U.S. population at which adolescents (ages10 -14) are treated in hospital emergency rooms for fatal self-injury increase by 188% for girls, and 48% for boys, since 2010. And perhaps the most sobering of all, suicide rates in U.S. for adolescents (ages10 -14) rose 91% for boys and 167% for girls since 2010. In Australia the rate at which teenagers (ages 12 - 24) were kept in hospitals over night for mental health reasons increased by 81% for girls, and 51% for boys, since 2010 (Australia’s Health 2022 Data Insights). Not only is there a significant increase in mental health concerns, there is also a sharp decrease in the daily average time Gen Z spent with friends (American Time Use Study).
Social Media Growth From 2010
The iPhone 4 was introduced in 2010 and was the first iPhone with front-facing camera. In 2012 Facebook purchase Instagram. It’s user base then grew rapidly from an estimated 10 million near the end of 2011 to 90 million by early 2013. Over the next few years external apps with enticing filters and editing software were available at a growing rate. While girls lives moved into social media platforms, creating perfect profiles for likes, judgment, and valuations by friends and strangers, boys uptake on immersive online multiplayer video games, YouTube, Reddit, and hardcore pornography increased. All of these were available anytime, anywhere, for free right on their smartphones. Social patterns, role models, emotions, physical activity, and sleep patterns changed over the course of just five years.
This dramatic change was not just the result of the introduction of smart phones. Research is undeniably showing us that when Instagram was bought by Facebook and strategically marketed to young people through algorithms and behavioural techniques that the mental health crisis in young people, in particular Gen Z, grew exponentially.
The research is clear. It is signalling us all that the wild west of social media has done damage to young people, in particular Gen Z. Giving a kid a phone and crossing our fingers that they’ll use social media platforms wisely is dubious. To hope they won’t be distracted by content and not complete their homework, that they won’t care about how many likes they got, nor be harmed by the content the algorithm is sending them is wishful thinking. And from the emerging data, is not realistic.
Action Required
The research supports the need to limit the age for access to social media. Like limitations to alcohol consumption for individuals under the age of 18; getting rid of cigarette vending machines in the 1960’s and only making available over the counter; and having a set age limit for driving; it is hoped the limitations set for social media will reduce potential harm. In this case to mental health.
When kids are too young to have self-control, and parents wage an endless battle of conflict with their teens over restricting social media use l(iving with the behavioural consequences of it), then it becomes impertinent for higher powers to enforce legislation to help. It is a welcomed outcome that a ban for under the age of 16 years is about to be enforced. For parents it means they are supported. They really can say, ‘No! It’s the law.’ For teens, quietly, they may feel a sense of relief. The scrolling and trolling is coming to a reprieve, until they are older, wiser, and their brain is a bit more mature to make executive decisions (a bit). For society, it is a step to show we have seen the damage to this group of young people’s mental health and are doing something about it.
Source: Haidt (2024).The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Penguin Random House