The United States’ most senior public health official, surgeon-general Vivek Murthy, believes social media platforms should come with warning labels. The United Nations’ education, science and culture agency says smartphones should be banned in schools. Chinese regulators are pushing to limit children’s smartphone use to just two hours a day.
The United States’ most senior public health official, surgeon-general Vivek Murthy, believes social media platforms should come with warning labels. The United Nations’ education, science and culture agency says smartphones should be banned in schools. Chinese regulators are pushing to limit children’s smartphone use to just two hours a day.
These are just a few high profile examples of growing global concerns about the risks young people face when using the internet. Those worries are backed by a large, global body of research. Social media use has been linked to feelings of envy, depression and anxiety among young people all over the world, including those in African countries.
This evidence can make for depressing reading, especially if you’re the parent or caregiver of a teenager. Many may be tempted to confiscate their teens’ cellphones, lock away their tablets and keep them as far away from the internet as possible. But that’s neither practical nor helpful in a hyper-connected, digital world.
Though we come from different academic disciplines as a children’s rights researcher, a moral philosopher and a clinical researcher, our current work focuses on the same thing: the ethics of new and emerging technologies and their impact.
We know that protecting children is a shared responsibility. Government, service providers and education systems all have a role to play. But parents are key. So, drawing from our ongoing research, we have three messages for parents trying to navigate this modern minefield.
One, the internet and social media are not all bad for children. Some online spaces may even help young people to manage their mental health.
Two, children and teens have rights to access information, share their views and have those views respected.
