Leading psychologists have issued recommendations to help parents limit their children’s social media use for the first time.
The American Psychological Association (APA) said its unprecedented 10-rules guide would provide “guidance” to help parents “keep up with the rapidly changing social media ecosystem.”
Many experts have described the situation as a social media epidemic, with the most popular sites repeatedly slammed for promoting self-harm and suicide content. More than 40 school districts across America are suing Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok for “creating an adolescent mental health crisis.”
The APA’s recommendations include encouraging the use of social media that creates connections, limiting screen time to prevent it interfering with sleep and exercise, and monitoring what children are doing online.
A 2022 survey found that during the pandemic, average daily screen usage increased to more than 5.5 hours for children aged 8 to 12 and to 8 hours and 39 minutes for adolescents aged 13 to 18
Time spent on social media has increased over the years, with consistently high social media usage during the Covid pandemic
Arthur Evans, CEO of APA said: “We hope these recommendations will be helpful as we all try to keep up with the rapidly changing social media ecosystem.
“APA will continue to monitor developments within current and future platforms to protect our youth and enable them to benefit from the positive aspects of social media.”
The APA is a scientific organization that represents psychologists in the United States and issues clinical guidelines for professionals and recommendations on how people can apply psychological science in their lives.
The recommendations are quite vague, including minimizing young people’s exposure to hate and limiting their consumption of appearance-related content.
They say parents should screen, discuss and coach children on their social media use and make sure they get eight hours of sleep.
They also suggest routinely screening adolescents for problematic social media use, including lying to gain access, strong desire to use social media, and the loss or disruption of important relationships due to social media use.
It is also recommended to reduce teens’ exposure to illegal or mentally harmful behavior, such as B. Self-harm, cleaning or excessive exercise.
Research shows that 90 percent of US teens ages 13 to 17 have used social media.
Three-quarters said they have at least one active social media profile, and more than half said they visit a social media site every day.
Two thirds of young people have their own mobile phone with Internet access.
Meanwhile, the number of teenage girls who say they feel persistently sad or hopeless rose from 36 percent to 57 percent in a decade from 2011 to 2021.
The proportion of respondents who are seriously considering attempting suicide has also increased to 30 percent, compared to 19 percent a decade earlier.
Experts have suggested that social media could be a major cause because it encourages people to compare themselves to others, addiction and “FOMO” or the fear of missing out.
The survey above, conducted in Spring 2018, found that the majority of US teens use YouTube and Instagram next to Snapchat
The guidelines are based on the latest psychological science and research on teenagers and social media.
Dozens of studies have been conducted with thousands of teenagers who reported or were observed to participate in specific activities or content on social media.
The adolescents underwent standardized tests of social, behavioral, psychological and/or neurological functioning.
A 2022 survey found that during the pandemic, average daily screen usage increased to more than 5.5 hours for children aged 8 to 12 and to 8 hours and 39 minutes for adolescents aged 13 to 18.
Meanwhile, TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny from the Biden administration over surveillance fears.
It comes after Canada and the European Union Prohibited use of the app on government-issued mobile devices.
The mandates stem from fears Beijing could force TikTok to release data about its international users.
Owned by Chinese internet company Byte Dance, TikTok first came to the United States in 2016.
It immediately became extremely popular, garnering hundreds of millions of followers and achieving a level of success never before seen by a Chinese app in the US.
However, concerns about its safety first surfaced under Trump’s administration amid the US-China tariff wars.
The Justice Department is currently investigating claims that the company spied on US tech journalists.
Democrats and Republicans agreed, and lawmakers from both sides criticized the company’s chief executive officer at this week’s hearing.
And the Montana legislature passed legislation last month to ban TikTok from operating in the state.
It’s more far-reaching than bans in nearly half of the states and the US federal government that ban TikTok on government devices.
The US surgeon general released an advisory last week urging people to connect more with friends, family and colleagues and spend less time online and on social media.
Technology has quickly exacerbated the loneliness problem, with a study cited in the report finding that people who used social media for two hours or more a day were more than twice as likely to say they felt socially isolated as those who used such apps less than 30 years used minutes a day.
dr Murthy said social media in particular is driving increases in loneliness. His report suggests that tech companies are putting in place safeguards for children, particularly when it comes to their behavior on social media.
He said: “There really is no substitute for face-to-face interaction. As we began to use technology more to communicate, we lost many of those face-to-face interactions. How do we design technology that strengthens our relationships instead of weakening them?’
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