American Psychological Association Issues Its First Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence

Teaching kids to be smart about social media use is the best way to protect their mental health, according to the American Psychological Association. The APA just released its first health advisory on social media use in adolescence to help guide parents, educators, tech companies, policymakers, and healthcare providers.

The president of the APA says that "just as we require young people to be trained in order to get a driver's license, our youth need instruction in the safe and healthy use of social media." The advisory includes 10 recommendations to minimize the harms and maximize the benefits of the platform. Among them are tailoring social media use functionality and permissions to a child's level of maturity and comprehension of the risks, minimizing adolescent exposure to content that shows illegal or dangerous behaviors, and minimizing exposure to online content that promotes discrimination, prejudice, hate, or cyberbullying.

Additionally, it advises limiting social media use for primarily beauty or appearance-related content and ensuring that social media use does not interfere with sleep or physical activity. The APA president states that social media is not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people, "but because they mature at different rates, some are more vulnerable than others to the content and features on many social media platforms that science has demonstrated can influence healthy development." A recent poll found that half of all parents believe social media has harmed their kids' mental health over the past year.