One of the most prominent U.S. mental health organizations has developed a set of guidelines with the goal of protecting children from the dangers of social media.
The American Psychological Association (APA) issued its first-ever health recommendation on the use of social media on Tuesday in response to mounting concerns about how social networks built for adults might have detrimental effects on youngsters.
It is recommended that young people exercise caution while using online social networks since they are “not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people,” according to the study. The purpose of this article is not to bash social media. The health advice doesn’t single out any specific social media platforms but rather covers a broad variety of concerns related to kids’ time spent online and offers sound advice and findings based on further analysis.
The APA’s recommendations stress the need for parental guidance, but they also criticize algorithms that expose children to hazardous content, such as articles that promote self-harm, disordered eating, racism, and other kinds of online hatred.
Other recommendations address the routines and habits of children, which fall primarily within the purview of adult caregivers. The American Psychological Association advises against routine screening of children for “problematic social media use.” Red flags include engaging in behaviors characteristic of traditional addiction, such as spending more time on social media than planned or lying to maintain access.
Similarly, the American Psychological Association (APA) recommends that parents take precautions to ensure that their children’s use of it does not interfere with their regular routines of getting enough sleep and being physically active. According to the recommendation, sleep deprivation is associated with impaired neurodevelopment, emotional dysfunction, and increased suicide risk in adolescents.
Some of the recommendations are challenging to implement, even for adults, given today’s social media landscape. One piece of health advice is to limit young people’s exposure to information on social networking platforms, “particularly around beauty/appearance-related content.”
The American Psychological Association stresses that children’s unique offline experiences also affect how they use social media.
According to the APA, “the effects of social media depend on adolescents’ own personal and psychological characteristics and social circumstances” when it comes to how they use the various social media platforms and their respective features, content, and functions.
What this means is that the effects of social media on children will likely vary depending on factors such as the children’s individual strengths and weaknesses, their access to and usage of social media, and their developmental context.
The group also alerts parents and platforms to the dangers posed by features like buttons and infinite scrolling that are intended for adults. In an attempt to protect minors from being affected by aspects intended to mold adult behavior, regulators are increasingly critical of these features and advertising directed at users under the age of 18.
The APA recommends that parents implement parental controls on their children’s gadgets and applications and that they engage in a suitable amount of “adult monitoring” for their children’s ages.