Key points:
- Social media poses risks to students’ mental health and well-being
- Taking stock of student mental health
- It takes a village to protect students’ well-being in the digital age
- For more news on youth mental health, visit eSN’s SEL & Well-Being hub
Spurred by increasing concerns about youth well-being and social media use, a new report from the Biden-Harris Administration’s Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force offers recommendations and best practices for safer social media and online platform use for youth.
Approximately 95 percent of teenagers, and 40 percent of children between the ages of eight and 12 years old, use some form of social media. Digital technology use can both benefit young people’s well-being and expose them to significant harm.
Social media use has been associated with risks to physical and mental health, including exposure to bullying, online harassment and abuse, discrimination, and child sexual exploitation. And adolescents who seek out information about health and safety topics online risk encountering inaccurate information that can be unhelpful or actively dangerous.
The recommendations in the report, Online Health and Safety for Children and Youth: Best Practices for Families and Guidance for Industry, underscore the Administration’s efforts to address the ongoing youth mental health crisis and support the President’s Unity Agenda for the nation.
“Across the Biden-Harris Administration, we are committed to combatting the youth mental health crisis in this country and ensuring Americans have the tools and support they need to thrive online,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “As more and more of kids’ time is spent online, this administration is taking steps to protect their privacy and mental health. The recommendations in our report will chart a path toward an internet that works for everyone.”
The Biden-Harris Administration’s Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force is co-led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (DOC) National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
Task Force members also committed to future actions, including providing more resources for kids, teenagers and families, guidance for pediatricians and conducting more research.
“President Biden has made addressing the youth mental health crisis a top priority. That’s why we are taking steps to ensure the safety and well-being of young people when they use social media and online platforms,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “The Biden-Harris Administration has whole-of-government approach to protect the mental health, safety, and privacy of youth online, but it will take more than government alone to achieve results.”
The report provides a summary of the risks and benefits of social media on the health, safety, and privacy of young people; best practices for parents and caregivers; recommended practices for industry; a research agenda; and suggested future work, including for the federal government. Youth advocates, civil society organizations, academic researchers and other experts provided input into the Task Force’s recommendations.
“SAMHSA is focused on helping young people, their parents, caregivers and others to protect their mental health when using social media and online platforms,” said Task Force Co-Chair Miriam E. Delphin-Rittmon, Ph.D., HHS Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use and the leader of SAMHSA. “We know that while there are some benefits to using this technology, such as building connections and supportive communities, there is also substantial cause for concern, and we want to reduce the potential harms as much as possible so that young people can thrive.”
“As young people spend more of their lives online, it is past time to act and do more to protect them,” said Task Force Co-Chair Alan Davidson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator. “This Task Force report outlines practices and design choices that companies can implement today to prioritize the privacy of kids, their well-being. and their ability to thrive online. Our report suggests changes that will help young people safely navigate and enjoy all the benefits the Internet offers, while minimizing the risks they face.”
Industry recommendations
The task force identified 10 recommended practices for online service providers to implement to develop and operate their platforms with youth well-being in mind. Companies make design choices that shape kids’ online experiences, and those choices can contribute to, or alleviate harms. This report urges industry to make design choices that prioritize kids’ well-being. This includes guidance on ways to:
- Design age-appropriate experiences for youth users
- Make privacy protections for youth the default
- Reduce and remove features that encourage excessive or problematic use by youth
- Limit “likes” and social comparison features for youth by default
- Develop and deploy mechanisms and strategies to counter child sexual exploitation and abuse
- Disclose accurate and comprehensive safety-related information about apps
- Improve systems to address bias and discrimination that youth experience online
- Use data-driven methods to detect and prevent cyberbullying, and other forms of online harassment and abuse
- Provide age-appropriate parental control tools that are easy to understand and use
- Make data accessible for verified, qualified, and independent research
Resources for parents and caregivers
The best practices and resources for parents and caregivers includes an overarching framework, strategies for parents and caregivers, handouts, and conversation-starters to help engage children in conversations about online platforms and technology use, and a compendium of resources for parents and caregivers. Many of these materials were developed in coordination with the SAMHSA-funded Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health run by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
“The American Academy of Pediatrics supports the Kids Online Safety Task Force report released today and commends SAMHSA and the Department of Commerce for addressing the impact of social media on youth mental health,” said Dr. Megan Moreno, co-Medical Director of the SAMHSA-funded AAP Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health. “To help make the report’s recommendations accessible and actionable, we’ve published new resources for families and those who work with them, including conversation starters and activities to help parents and caregivers know what to say and how to begin building foundational skills. We are pleased to be a strong partner in this work.”
“It is encouraging that our leaders are attending to risks, usage, and opportunities associated with internet access and social media. The role of parents and caregivers continues unabated, however. In the past, we could teach our children to look both ways before crossing the street. Now, when it comes to the internet and social media, we have to teach them to look all ways, including ways we haven’t imagined yet,” said Dr. Suzanne Barchers, educational advisor at LingoKids.
“Adults need to keep the conversation going at all times re. screen use. Family meetings that set parameters are critical. However, it’s not enough to have one discussion about online predators or scammers. Children understand information on different levels at different times. Discussions should be ongoing. Parents can also look at Common Sense Media regularly, a site that assesses and advises on all media content, from current movies and books to safe and educational apps,” Barchers added. “Concurrently, they should watch for signs of depression, excessive use of a phone or social media, or changes in eating or sleeping habits. If signs become troublesome, it’s time to probe more–reminding your children that you are responsible for their health and safety while they live at home, no matter what the age.”
In collaboration with the Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force, the AAP Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health is also launching a variety of new web content, including: recommended best practices resources by topic and/or audience; a series of age-based handouts for parents that pediatricians and others can distribute at well-check visits; new clinical case examples for pediatricians and other clinicians demonstrating how to integrate conversations about media use into health consultations with teen patients; and expanded content specifically for teens.
Next steps
The report concludes with recommended next steps for policymakers, including:
- Enacting bipartisan federal legislation to protect youth health, safety, and privacy online
- Advancing industry action to implement age-appropriate health, safety, and privacy best practices on online platforms through federal legislation and voluntary commitments
- Working to require access to platform data for independent researchers in privacy-preserving ways
- Providing support for research into youth privacy, health, and safety online;
- Promoting youth voices in solution setting
- Supporting access to new and updated resources tailored for youth, parents, health providers, educators, and online platforms
- Engaging in international efforts to collaborate on online safety
This press release originally appeared online.
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