Researchers and clinicians say responsibilities for protecting children and youth from problematic digital media use should shift to social media companies and governments.
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Experts say screen-time limits and individual willpower are not enough to address harms linked to problematic social media use by children and youth, arguing the response must target the business models and design choices of digital platforms.
The comments were made in connection with a series of papers published by The Lancet on Sunday, which calls for responsibility to move away from young people and their families toward big tech companies and governments.
Jay Shaw, a Canada Research Chair in responsible health innovation at the University of Toronto and a co-author of the Lancet series, said it is “easy to think” about technology and health as a matter of individual choices, but said that approach is not the right way to understand the issue.
Shaw said the papers focus on what they describe as “digital determinants of health,” adding that the platforms are built to support engagement and keep users on them, while also collecting data about what people like, what they share and what posts they return to for advertising purposes.
He pointed to features such as bottomless or infinite scroll as an example of how the design can make it harder to end a session.
The Lancet papers also describe targeted algorithms and AI chatbots as tools that recommend tailored content and keep young people interacting with platforms, which Shaw said can contribute to addictive patterns and problematic use.
Among harms described in an “umbrella review” of 2,790 studies, the Lancet series says problematic digital media use has been associated with depression, anxiety, sleep disruption and limited physical activity.
The review also found some health benefits linked to “moderate” digital media use and active video gaming, which Shaw said highlights the need to consider both engagement patterns and the types of content being consumed when evaluating benefits and harms.
Shaw said some of the debate around mental health harm has involved claims of insufficient causal evidence, but said the combination of digital media’s scale and the existence of vulnerability in some individuals supports taking “precautionary public health action.”
He said that action includes government regulation and reforms to digital platforms’ business models so the well-being of young people is prioritized.
The Lancet series says Australia has imposed regulations limiting social media access to people 16 and older, and Shaw said dozens of other countries, including Canada, are considering similar measures.
Shaw said Canada’s proposed legislation—Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act and Bill C-36, the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act—gets the approach right if it becomes law. He said it would create a Digital Safety Commission to oversee tech companies and restrict social media use for people under 16, while also allowing exemptions where companies can demonstrate “adequate safeguards” for children.
Shaw said a total ban for younger teens is not ideal and argued instead for incentives that encourage companies to improve platform safety.
In the Lancet series, a youth advisory group drew on the lived experiences of six young adults aged 23 to 30, including Yifan Zhou, a Canadian participant who said she sees both benefits and harms from social media.
Zhou said she agrees social media can support positive uses such as connecting with friends and peers and improving access to educational information, but she also described concerns raised by other young people, including loneliness from less in-person connection and anxiety linked to frequent comparison online.
Zhou also said she has discussed online predation with other youth and described how the issue persisted for years without being detected, adding that the secrecy and shame around it were compounded by what she said were insufficient regulations and education.
Dr. Michael Cheng, a psychiatrist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and the CHEO Research Institute, said he frequently sees the addictive nature of social media and mental health harms in his clinical work and said the pattern of concerns has changed over time for children and youth.
Cheng was not involved in the Lancet series and said the issue reflects a global trend of increased concern about the same problem.
The Lancet series also reports that Instagram’s age restriction is 13 and that Meta says users under 16 have default account settings that allow parents to set screen time limits and view who their children are messaging, while also blocking messages from people users are not connected with and minimizing exposure to sensitive content.
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