On March 22, APA sent a letter to Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, (PDF, 213KB)opens in new window asking for his consideration to create and distribute a public education campaign targeted at youth and their parents and guardians to raise public awareness of the impacts of social media on children and adolescents. This letter comes as a follow-up to an advisory on protecting youth mental health (PDF, 1.01MB)opens in new window the surgeon general issued last year.
While the research recognizes social media’s potential to provide children with a healthy space for convening and companionship, it has also demonstrated very real harmsopens in new window that are impacting children today. More must be done to communicate and mitigate these negative impacts of online social media use. The organizations signed on to this letter represent a wide range of scientific expertise and offered assistance to the surgeon general in developing new educational materials.
A public education campaign from the surgeon general should include information about the specific dangers social media poses to adolescents, how parents can best navigate learning more about these dangers, how best to communicate the risks with their children, and ultimately how to educate their children on the best methods for using social media in a safe way.
Read the full letteropens in new window (PDF, 210KB).
For more information, contact Corbin Evans.