Bringing the science of social media’s impact on children to Congress

The Center for Children and Youth hosted a briefing titled “Youth Mental Health Policy Roundtable: Interventions at School, Online, and at Home” for members of Congress and their staff on September 18, 2024. This session featured a focus on the need for additional policy solutions to help solve the negative impacts identified by APA’s Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence (PDF, 431KB)opens in new window released in the spring of 2023. To help share the psychological science underpinning this issue, Health Advisory task force member Linda Charmaraman, PhD, contributed to the event. 

Charmaraman shared research findings supporting APA’s Health Advisory about the positive and negative impacts that social media use is having on young people, including the impacts on childhood development, social skills, and the way that content and features of social media platforms impact young people. She also shared her perspective on potential ways that federal and state policy can help to mitigate these impacts. 

Other panelists at the event included Tamar Magarik Haro, senior director of Federal and State Advocacy, American Academy of Pediatrics; Ken Ginsburg, MD, MSEd, professor of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; and Lori Schott, advocate for Safe Online Spaces for Kids, each lending a unique perspective on the need for action to address the most concerning harmful impacts of social media technologies. 

Representative Emanuel Cleaver II (D–Missouri) joined the briefing to share remarks with attendees on why this issue was important to him and his constituents and why he felt it was important for Congress to act. Cleaver spoke in favor of several legislative solutions, including the Kids Online Safety Act (H.R. 7891opens in new window), which has long been championed by APA Services. 

This session represented an important additional step towards creating action within Congress to help solve this important issue. APA Services continues to remain committed to pushing for legislative solutions and look forward to working with Representative Cleaver and the panelists contributing to this event to see real change in the future.

For more information, contact Corbin Evans.