American Psychological Association (APA) issued information about the potential risks of content, features, and functions regarding the science of how social media affects youth.
Almost a year after APA issued its health advisory on social media, use in adolescence, society continues to wrestle with ways to maximize the benefits of these platforms while protecting youth from the potential harms associated with them.
By early 2024, few meaningful changes to social media platforms had been enacted by industry, and no federal policies had been adopted. There remains a need for social media companies to make fundamental changes to their platforms.
According to APA, platforms built for adults are not inherently suitable for youth. Youth require special protection due to areas of competence or vulnerability as they progress through the childhood, teenage, and late adolescent years. This is especially true for youth experiencing psychological, physical, intellectual, mental health, or other developing challenges; chronological age is not directly associated with social media readiness.
Hypersensitivity to social Feedback
Brain development starting at 10-13 (i.e., the outset of puberty) until approximately the mid-twenties is linked with hypersensitivity to social feedback/stimuli. In other words, youth become especially invested in behaviors that will help them get personalized feedback, praise, or attention from peers.
AI-recommended content has the potential to be especially influential and hard to resist within this age range. It is critical that AI-recommend content be designed to prioritize youth safety and welfare over engagement. This suggests potentially restricting the use of personalized recommendations using youth data, design features that may prioritize content evoking extreme emotions, or content that may depict illegal or harmful behavior.
Likes and follower counts activate neural regions that trigger repetitive behavior, and thus may exert greater influence on youths’ attitudes and behavior than among adults. Youth are especially sensitive to both positive social feedback and rejection from others. Using these metrics to maintain platform engagement capitalizes on youths’ vulnerabilities and likely leads to problematic use.
The use of youth data for tailored ad content similarly is influential for youth who are biologically predisposed toward peer influence at this state and sensitive to personalized content.
Need for relationship skill building
Adolescence is a critical period for the development of more complex relationship skills, characterized by the ability to form emotionally intimate relationships. The adolescent years should provide opportunities to practice these skills through one-on-one or small group interactions.
The focus on metrics of followers, likes, and views focuses adolescents’ attention on unilateral, depersonalized interactions and may discourage them from building healthier and psychologically beneficial relationship skills.
Susceptibility to harmful content
Adolescence is a period of heightened susceptibility to peer influence, impressionability, and sensitivity to social rejection. Harmful content, including cybernate, the depiction of illegal behavior, and encouragement to engage in self-harm (e.g., cutting or eating-disordered behavior) is associated with increased mental health difficulties among both the targets and witnesses of such contents.
The absence of clear and transparent processes for addressing reports of harmful content makes it harder for youth to feel protected or able to get help in the face of harmful content.
Need for parental/caregiver partnership
Research indicates that youth can benefit from parental support to guide them toward safe decisions and to help them understand and appropriately respond to complex social interactions. Granting parents oversight of youths’ accounts should be offered in balance with adolescents’ needs for autonomy, privacy, and independence. However, it should be easier for parents to partner with youth online in a manner that fits their family’s needs.