On May 23, 2023, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Surgeon General published an Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health.

Basis for scrutiny

The Surgeon General highlighted that the risks of the increased and continuous social media use, particularly with regard to adolescents' health, has warranted additional scruitiny of social media platforms.

Policy changes

The Surgeon General provided that policymakers can address many of the issues from social media use by youth, including:

• strengthening protections to ensure greater safety for children interacting with social media platforms, including:
  • developing age-appropriate health and safety standards;
  • requiring a higher standard of data privacy for children; and/or
  • strengthening and enforcing age-based access mechanisms; and
• ensuring technology companies share data on the health impact of their platforms with independent researchers and the public in a manner that is timely, sufficiently detailed, and protects privacy.

The Surgeon General also outlined that technology companies can prevent, minimize, and address the risks associated with social media, by:

• conducting and facilitating transparent and independent assessments of the  impact of social media products and services on children and adolescents; and
• prioritizing user health and safety in the design and development of social media products and services, including:
  • ensuring default settings for children are set to the highest safety and privacy standards; and
  • adhering to and enforcing age-based access mechanisms.

The Surgeon General also addresses the steps that may be taken by parents, children, and adolescents to mitigate the potential harms of social media usage.

You can read the press release here and the advisory here.