Psychologists offer these 10 recommendations for safe, sane social media use

The American Psychological Association is calling for teens to undergo training before they enter the sometimes fun but sometimes fraught world of social media, according to new recommendations released Tuesday.

"Social media is neither inherently harmful nor beneficial to our youth," said Dr. Thema Bryant, the APA's president. "Just as we require young people to be trained in order to get a driver's license, our youth need instruction in the safe and healthy use of social media."

Bryant assembled an advisory panel to review the scientific literature on social media use and formulate recommendations for healthy adolescent use, according to an APA news release.

The American Psychological Association Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence released 10 recommendations to guide educators, parents, policymakers, mental health and health practitioners, technology companies and adolescents.

Recommendations for youth social media use

1. Youth using social media should be encouraged to use functions that create opportunities for social support, online companionship, and emotional intimacy that can promote healthy socialization

2. Social media use, functionality, and permissions/consenting should be tailored to youths’ developmental capabilities; designs created for adults may not be appropriate for children.

3. In early adolescence (i.e., typically 10–14 years), adult monitoring (i.e., ongoing review, discussion, and coaching around social media content) is advised for most youths’ social media use; autonomy may increase gradually as kids age and if they gain digital literacy skills. However, monitoring should be balanced with youths’ appropriate needs for privacy.

4. To reduce the risks of psychological harm, adolescents’ exposure to content on social media that depicts illegal or psychologically maladaptive behavior, including content that instructs or encourages youth to engage in health-risk behaviors, such as self-harm (e.g., cutting, suicide), harm to others, or those that encourage eating-disordered behavior (e.g., restrictive eating, purging, excessive exercise) should be minimized, reported, and removed;23 moreover, technology should not drive users to this content.

5. To minimize psychological harm, adolescents’ exposure to “cyberhate” including online discrimination, prejudice, hate, or cyberbullying especially directed toward a marginalized group (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, religious, ability status),22 or toward an individual because of their identity or allyship with a marginalized group should be minimized.

6. Adolescents should be routinely screened for signs of “problematic social media use” that can impair their ability to engage in daily roles and routines, and may present risk for more serious psychological harms over time.

Indicators of problematic social media use include:

• a tendency to use social media even when adolescents want to stop, or realize it is interfering with necessary tasks
• spending excessive effort to ensure continuous access to social media
• strong cravings to use social media, or disruptions in other activities from missing social media use too much
• repeatedly spending more time on social media than intended
• lying or deceptive behavior to retain access to social media use
• loss or disruption of significant relationships or educational opportunities because of media use

7. The use of social media should be limited so as to not interfere with adolescents’ sleep and physical activity.

8. Adolescents should limit use of social media for social comparison, particularly around beauty- or appearance-related content.

9. Adolescents’ social media use should be preceded by training in social media literacy to ensure that users have developed psychologically-informed competencies and skills that will maximize the chances for balanced, safe, and meaningful social media use.

10. Substantial resources should be provided for continued scientific examination of the positive and negative effects of social media on adolescent development.

The recommendations emphasize that adolescents should have instruction in social media literacy and psychological development before joining social media as well as occasional training to bolster their knowledge as they go along, all to minimize potential harm.

They also advise that social media use should be tailored to the child's developmental stage — and monitored by adults in the case of younger children.

Imposing limitations is also important when it comes to content that promotes self-harm, eating disorder behavior, discrimination, hate, cyberbullying, or that is primarily beauty focused, the release said.

The recommendations also encourage limitations on when adolescents use social media, so as not to interfere with sleep or physical activity.

Not all rules work for all teens

Optimal social media use won't look the same in every child, which is why the panel said recommendations need to be paired with knowledge of individual strengths, weaknesses and context.

"Age-appropriate use of social media should be based on each adolescent's level of maturity (e.g., self-regulation skills, intellectual development, comprehension of risks) and home environment," the release said.

There was also a lack of sufficient research into social media use of "youth from racial, ethnic, sexual, gender, socioeconomic or differently abled populations, and/or youth with chronic developmental or health conditions," the release said.

The APA also called for more investment in research funding to access more data.

Given the research available, the APA cannot say if social media is helpful or harmful to young people, especially considering both the risks of harmful content and the rewards of healthy socialization.

But the APA will continue to monitor developments in research on current and future platforms, said Dr. Arthur C. Evans Jr., the APA CEO.

"We hope these recommendations will be helpful as we all try to keep pace with the rapidly shifting social media ecosystem," he said.

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