The introduction of smartphones, and with it, ubiquitous social media usage, are clearly key factors in the rise in youth mental health issues seen across the world.
By Jonah Davids
There is considerable evidence linking social media use to youth mental health issues. In response, Canada and other countries have developed some policies to deal with social media use among young people, but there are more practical options that Canadian policy-makers could take.
Youth mental health issues have been on the rise since the early 2010s, especially among girls, with significant increases in depression, anxiety, and self-harm. In Canada, rates of depressive and anxiety disorders have climbed notably among those aged 15 to 24. This widespread pattern is not limited to Canada, but is apparent across the Anglosphere, which indicates that there is likely some global factor driving the decline in youth mental health. The leading theory, popularized and developed by psychologist Jonathan Haidt, is that these negative trends are driven by social media use.
Time spent on social media now often replaces in-person interaction, exposes users to damaging content, and leads some to interpret normal distress as mental health symptoms. Studies suggest that one to two hours of daily social media use is associated with good mental health, but mental health worsens as use increases beyond that. Studies also tend to find that there are small, negative, and causal effects on mental health from social media use.
The preponderance of the evidence indicates that social media is a major contributor to, and likely a leading cause of, declining youth mental health.
Governments worldwide have started to regulate children’s social media use,
often by tackling “online harm” with policies that try to moderate the content posted on these platforms. However, these efforts, such as Canada’s proposed Online Harms Act, which would impose strict punishments for “hate” offences and empower judges to restrict the movement of anyone who could commit an online hate crime in the future, often infringe on privacy and free expression.
Given the risks to free speech and privacy posed by many attempts at social media regulation, Canada should aim for an even-handed policy response that protects the mental health of young people without significantly threatening, privacy, creating new bureaucracies, or demanding complex changes to social media platforms.
Specifically, Canada should:
• Raise the minimum age of social media use to 16.
• Deny government the power to decide what constitutes so-called “harmful” content.
• Fund experimental research on social media and mental health.
• Strengthen school cellphone and social media bans.
• Raise awareness of the downsides of social media.
• Reorient childhood around free play instead of focusing on screen time.
Like any complex social phenomenon, there are likely multiple significant causal factors in play. However, the introduction of smartphones, and with it, ubiquitous social media usage, are clearly key factors in the rise in youth mental health issues seen across the world. To safeguard the mental health of its young, Canada should act now and pursue policies that mitigate social media’s harms as prudently as possible.
Source: macdonaldlaurier.ca
