Featuring the work of Dr. Mitch Prinstein

Social media companies could do much more to minimize harm for young people, and dismissing the mental health dangers while standing in front of grieving parents and Congress didn’t help make their case. Zuckerberg said “no one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered” — it’s in his and the other tech CEOs power to make that a reality, by building in more age-appropriate controls, removing harmful content, making their data more available to outside researchers, and educating both young people and their parents about the risks of their products. 

The adolescent years are crucial for brain development. The way that the teen brain matures makes this entire life stage a risky period for social media use, which social media developers must take into account. While social media is not the cause of the youth mental health crisis, it is exacerbating mental health concerns in many young people during their teen years, simply by using these platforms in exactly the way they are intended to be used.