Erin Wolfe (17), a fifth-year student from Kilmallock, Co Limerick, is well aware of the hazards of social media. “I know myself and my friend group, we’ve all dealt with different things. There’s a lot of things that people will mock you for.” But, she says, “people do use it for good, so they shouldn’t cut it off for everyone”.
Speaking in the wake of fresh calls to ban teenagers from social media, the secondary school pupil said: “There’s people out here and they’re making decisions, and they don’t have an iPhone, they don’t have a smartphone, they have a landline, and they’re calling all these big shots, and they don’t know social media.”
She was in Dublin on Friday at the launch of a position paper by the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland’s faculty of paediatrics on “Engaging in Online Activity: Prioritising and Protecting the Physical and Mental Health of Children and Young People”.
The paper calls for a number of actions, including regulations to hold platforms accountable, public awareness and parental support, and added resources for health professionals dealing with impacts of social media use.
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Dr Judith Meehan, consultant paediatrician and co-author of this paper, said: “We recognise the benefits of online platforms in enabling connection, education and self-expression but we cannot ignore or underestimate the negative health impacts we are seeing among children and young people.”
Some of the negative impacts of online activity include anxiety, depression, self-harm, negative body image, disordered eating, unhealthy food consumption, poor sleep, risk of obesity, cyberbullying and a reduction in self-esteem, social wellbeing and happiness.
“I think education, first of all, has a key role to play in terms of knowing how to safely navigate that world,” said Dr Meehan, adding: “We welcome the establishment of the Government Online Health Taskforce and Coimisiún na Meán’s commitment to child safety in the enforcement of the Digital Services Act.”
On Thursday, in the Dáil, Tánaiste Simon Harris responded to a question from Independent TD Paul Gogarty, in which he described the high numbers of children using social media as a “ticking time bomb”.
Mr Harris said he believed Ireland should follow Australia’s legislative change and seriously consider banning those under the age of 16 from using social media.
Asked about the proposal, Dr Meehan said “a ban is a very blunt instrument. I’ve no doubt that the taskforce are going to be looking at that, and I’d say Simon Harris will wait for the report of the taskforce.”
She said: “We need the Government to step up and enforce mandatory regulation and get these powerful platforms to step up and moderate some of their harmful content, enforce age verification measures and ethically design platforms so that they’re minimising excessive use.”
She said: “In clinics all around the country, paediatricians are seeing teenagers who are struggling, and their struggles are heavily linked to their online activity, and this isn’t guesswork, there is a huge amount of evidence.”
One example is the US Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which found an association between screen time and worsening mental health, increased behavioural problems, decreased academic performance and poorer sleep, but heightened quality of peer relationships.
Some reviews have found that the duration or frequency of social media use was more consistently linked with anxiety and depression in girls compared with boys.
“We certainly don’t want to appear to be anti-technology, anti- the digital world. I mean, it’s a phenomenal world in terms of its benefits, and it is here to stay. It’s really a societal collective responsibility, young people, parents, social media companies, government, policy, healthcare providers. Everybody needs to take responsibility for it,” said Dr Meehan.
When asked what one piece of advice she would give to a fellow 17-year-old trying to navigate social media, Erin said: “Not everything you’re going to read is true, and not everything online is real.”
