What’s the most effective way to protect our children’s mental health? The answer that’s been echoed by waves of politicians across the world over the last two decades: ban their social media.
Such calls have, very understandably, seen a recent resurgence in the UK. They follow the horrific murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey – and the revelation her teenage killers had frequently shared violent videos on social media apps. As Conservative MP Miriam Cates recently argued, such a crime illustrated how social media apps pose a “serious threat” to child safety and welfare.
At first, it feels easy to agree with Cates. Speaking as a parent, we all want our children to be safe, and years of newspaper headlines have suggested that social media is the cause of a children’s mental health crisis. However, the best scientific evidence we have so far simply doesn’t back this narrative.
Is social media truly harmful to children’s mental health?
It’s important to remember that social media has been with us for some time and most users in the past two decades engage in ways that bring many positives. Young people today use it to connect to others or pursue their hobbies. And when tragedies happen – like a murder – they can use social media to show support for those affected.
Overall, however, the best evidence we have today suggests it’s unlikely to impact their life satisfaction. In fact, global mental health survey data gathered in 168 countries across 18 years suggest there is no causal relationship between the introduction of the Internet and the wellbeing of young people. Overall, these data suggest that 99.6 per cent of a child’s wellbeing has nothing to do with how much time they spend on their devices.
It's clear that if you are aged between 10 and 20 years old your social media use will increase if your life satisfaction decreases. But the opposite isn’t necessarily true – in most groups, the more a child spends on social media doesn’t mean their life satisfaction will decrease.
Fundamentally, there’s actually very limited solid evidence that demonstrates social media causes mental health issues in children. Without establishing a causal link, a ban seems nonsensical – akin to banning car airbags because they’re associated with car accidents.
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Are most children becoming addicted to social media and smartphones?
‘Addiction’ is a very loaded term. And, especially in the context of smartphones, it’s used in a way that doesn’t consider the difference between a bad habit, and an object that is potentially harmful. After all, if you’re ‘addicted’ to anything you frequently spend time with, you could be said to be addicted to your bed, your car or even your friends.
That was the conclusion of one inventive (and very tongue-in-cheek) 2021 study in which researchers took a questionnaire meant to identify people with gambling addiction and, to prove a point, made one big change: they replaced the word ‘gambling’ with ‘friends’.
Consider these questions…
- Do you often spend time with your friends in order to forget about personal problems?
- Do you think about your friends even when you’re not with them?
- Have you even gone as far as ignoring your family to spend time with your friends?
If you answered yes to all the above, it’s likely you – alongside the majority of participants in the study – have what the researchers wryly called ‘offline-friend addiction’ (they were quick to point out this very concept was, of course, “farcical”).
Ultimately, social media may lead to some bad habits in children, but it’s not the same as a life-altering addiction. You’ll find it much easier to get a child off Roblox than a truly addictive substance.
Read more:
- Rise of the therapy chatbots: Should you trust an AI with your mental health?
- Can smartphone apps improve our mental health?
Could a social media ban actually be enforced?
It's very difficult to find a way of banning social media apps for children that wouldn’t A) violate existing laws, or B) be morally questionable. For starters, every child, according to the UN, has the right to have fun in the way they want to – this includes social media and social games (which are increasingly becoming the same thing). That’s before we question how a ban would interfere with a child’s free speech.
There’s also no way to evaluate if such a ban would be effective, as shown by South Korea’s failed ‘Cinderella law’. In 2011, the country’s National Assembly became very worried about children using social media and online games. So, citing fears about their mental health, sleep quality, and academic performance, the government forbade children from using the internet between the hours of midnight to 6am.
This ban stood in place for an entire 10 years. And during that time, the result of the law became clear: it had practically no effect. It did little to limit internet use, only saving children two minutes of sleep each night and providing no change in test scores.
How can children establish a healthy relationship with their screens?
It’s important that, as parents, we scaffold all activities that enter our children’s lives. You wouldn’t buy a child a bicycle and let them learn by themselves in a busy street. Our approach to social media should be exactly the same.
Ideally, parents should be engaged. They should help their child self-regulate their behaviour to help them prepare for adulthood. Nothing magical happens in terms of a young person’s ability to control themselves at ages 16 or 18.
If we ban social media for children or smartphones these will still be there when they grow up – and it’s crucial they acquire the skills to manage that usage in future. Very unfortunately, human ugliness and the attention economy aren’t going to go away – but sticking children’s heads in the sand is unlikely to be the solution.
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