Social Media and Youth Mental Health

Content Warning: This page contains references to self-harm and suicide.

Social Media and Youth Mental Health, The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory. 2023. An illustration of brightly colored message bubbles stacked on top of each other.

This Advisory describes the current evidence on the impacts of social media on the mental health of children and adolescents. It states that we cannot conclude social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents and outlines immediate steps we can take to mitigate the risk of harm to children and adolescents.

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Key Takeaways from the Advisory

A Surgeon General’s Advisory uses the best available science to shed light on major public health challenges and suggest possible solutions.

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Social media use by young people is nearly universal

Up to 95% of young people aged 13-17 report using a social media platform. Nearly two thirds of teenagers report using social media every day and one third report using social media “almost constantly.”1, 2

  1. Vogels et al., 2022.
  2. Rideout et al., 2022.

Social media presents a meaningful risk of harm to youth, while also providing benefits

The types of use and content children and adolescents are exposed to pose mental health concerns. Children and adolescents who spend more than 3 hours a day on social media face double the risk of mental health problems including experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety.3 This is concerning as a recent survey showed that teenagers spend an average of 3.5 hours a day on social media.4 And when asked about the impact of social media on their body image, 46% of adolescents aged 13-17 said social media makes them feel worse.5

  1. Riehm et al., 2019.
  2. Miech et al., 2022.
  3. Bickham et al., 2022.

We cannot conclude that social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents

We have gaps in our full understanding of the mental health impacts posed by social media but at this point cannot conclude it is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents. We must better understand the answers to key questions, such as, which types of content are most harmful and what factors can protect young people from the negative effects of social media.

We can take immediate actions to make social media safer for youth

The Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Healthcalls for engaging in a multifaceted effort to maximize the benefits and reduce the risk of harm posed by social media with actions suggested for groups including: children and adolescents, policymakers, technology companies, researchers, and families.

How can we take action?

At a moment when we are experiencing a national youth mental health crisis, now is the time to act swiftly and decisively to protect children and adolescents from risk of harm.

Ways to act based on your role

What children and adolescents can do:

  1. Reach out for help. If you or someone you know is being negatively affected by social media, reach out to a trusted friend or adult for help. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988 for immediate help.
  2. Create boundaries to help balance online and offline activities.
  3. Develop protective strategies and healthy practices for your own social media use. See this Tip Sheet on Social Media Use and Mental Health for healthy social media use created for and by young people.
  4. Be selective with what you post and share online and with whom, as it is often public and can be stored permanently.
  5. Protect yourself and others from cyberbullying or other forms of online harassment and abuse:
    1. If you or someone you know is the victim of cyberbullying or other forms of online harassment and abuse, don’t keep it a secret.
    2. Protect others by not taking part in online harassment or abuse. Avoid forwarding or sharing messages or images, tell others to stop, and report offensive content.

What parents and caregivers can do:

  1. Create a family media plan to help establish healthy technology boundaries at home—including social media use. For information on creating a family media plan, visit www.healthychildren.org/English/fmp/Pages/MediaPlan.aspx.
  2. Create tech-free zones and encourage children and adolescents to foster in-person friendships.
  3. Model responsible social media behavior.
  4. Teach children and adolescents about technology and empower them to be responsible online participants at the appropriate age.
  5. Report cyberbullying and online abuse and exploitation.
  6. Work with other parents to help establish shared norms and practices and to support programs and policies around healthy social media use.

What technology companies can do:

  1. Conduct and facilitate transparent and independent assessments of the impact of social media products and services on children and adolescents.
  2. Prioritize user health and safety in the design and development of social media products and services.
  3. Design, develop, and evaluate platforms, products, and tools that foster safe and healthy online environments for youth.
  4. Share data relevant to the health impact of platforms and strategies employed to ensure safety and well‑being with independent researchers and the public in a manner that is timely and protects privacy.
  5. Create effective and timely systems and processes to adjudicate requests and complaints from young people, families, educators, and others to address online abuse, harmful content and interactions, and other threats to children’s and adolescents’ health and safety.

What policymakers can do:

  1. Strengthen protections to ensure greater safety for children and adolescents interacting with all social media platforms, by:
    1. Developing age-appropriate health and safety standards for technology platforms.
    2. Require a higher standard of data privacy for children and adolescents.
    3. Pursue policies that further limit access—in ways that minimize the risk of harm—to social media for all children and adolescents.
  2. Ensure technology companies share data relevant to the health impact of their platforms with independent researchers and the public in a manner that is timely, sufficiently detailed, and protects privacy.
  3. Support the development, implementation, and evaluation of digital and media literacy curricula in schools and within academic standards.
  4. Support increased funding for future research on the benefits and harms of social media use.
  5. Engage with international partners working to protect children and adolescents against online harm to their health and safety.

What researchers can do:

  1. Establish the impact of social media on youth mental health as a research priority and develop a shared research agenda.
  2. Develop and establish standardized definitions and measures for social media and mental health outcomes that are regularly evaluated and applied across research contexts.
  3. Evaluate best practices for healthy social media use in collaboration with experts including healthcare providers, parents, and youth.
  4. Enhance research coordination and collaboration.

Additional Resources

Expert perspectives on the Advisory

This document captures what experts are saying about the Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health.

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AAP’s Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health

American Academy of Pediatrics

Learn more about the benefits and risks of social media use and get your questions answered by experts.

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APA’s Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence

American Psychological Association

Recommendations for educators, parents, policymakers, mental health and health practitioners, technology companies and youths themselves to help adolescents develop healthy social media practices.

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AAP’s Family Media Plan

American Academy of Pediatrics

A customizable family media plan to help set media priorities and boundaries. The Family Media Plan includes a list of media priorities and practical tips to make the plan work.

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Stopbullying.gov

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Helpful tips on how to report cyberbullying.

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Tip Sheet on Social Media Use and Mental Health

Youth Engaged 4 Change

Helpful tips on how to use social media to support mental health created for and by young people.

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Love is Respect

National Domestic Violence Hotline

An online chat to talk to experts if you have experienced online harassment and abuse by a dating partner or for resources to get support.

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Take It Down

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

For support or to get private images that have been taken and shared online without permission removed.

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CyberTipline

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

A tipline to report any instances of online exploitation.

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Content created by Office of the Surgeon General
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