Social media can profoundly harm the mental health of youth, particularly adolescent girls, the U.S. Surgeon General warned in an advisory on Tuesday, and he called for safeguards from tech companies for children who are at critical stages of brain development.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said that while social media offers some benefits, there are "ample indicators that"We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis - one that we must urgently address," Murthy said.
Adolescents who spend more than three hours per day on social media face double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes, such as symptoms of depression and anxiety, according to the advisory. It said policymakers should strengthen safety standards in ways that enhance those benefits for children of all ages, while noting that inappropriate and harmful content continues to be easily and widely accessible to children.
Algorithms and platform design should seek to maximize the potential benefits of social media instead of features designed to make users spend more time on them, it said.
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