On January 12, APA Services filed comments to stress the impacts of social media on child and adolescent mental health (PDF, 175KB)opens in new window in response to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) request for commentopens in new window. The call for comments came after a group of filers, including our coalition partner FairPlay, asked the agency to move forward with rulemaking on this issue, citing harms to children caused by design features created by social media companies to maximize time users spend on the platforms. As APA has previously noted, there are serious negative consequences associated with social media use. The use of tools designed to prolong time on these sites can exacerbate those consequences.
In the comments, the association highlighted the potential for social media companies to exploit the biological vulnerabilities of youth to encourage them to stay online longer. Adolescents’ brains are at a stage of development that promotes cravings for social attention, feedback, and status. This can be exploited by engagement practices and design choices being made by social media companies. Research demonstrates (Youtube, 29 minutes)opens in new window that digital media satisfies these cravings at a neural level, activating the same neural regions as drug addiction.
Another area of concern is the role peer influence plays when adolescents and children are online. Psychological science demonstrates digital media creates the illusion that expressed opinions represent many others’ beliefs and not just the thinking of an isolated user. This is exacerbated by tools used by the platforms to keep users on the site longer like infinite scroll or highlighting the most controversial content.
As the mental health impacts of social media are increasingly known, APA Services is encouraging the FTC to protect users, especially children, from the manipulation and mental health harm taking place online.
Visit Regulations.gov to read the full commentopens in new window.
For more information, contact Corbin Evans.