Study links children’s social media use with anxiety and depression in teenage years | Social media
According to research, children who spend more than three hours a day on social media are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety during adolescence.
This effect is likely linked to lack of sleep from late-night social media use, and the link to depression is more pronounced in girls, experts said.
Researchers at Imperial College London analyzed data from a 2014 study on cognition, adolescents and mobile phones based on responses from 2,350 children in 31 schools across London.
Schoolchildren were cognitively tested and completed a questionnaire about digital behaviour, mental health and lifestyles twice: once when they were between 11 and 12 years old, and a second time when they were 13 to 15 years old.
The analysis found that children who spent more than three hours a day on social media were more likely to show signs of anxiety and depression in adolescence, compared to those who spent 30 minutes online each day.
Researchers suggested this may be due to those who use social media more sleeping later and getting less sleep, especially on school nights.
Prof Mireille Toledano, principal investigator of the study and head of Imperial’s Mohn Center for Child Health and WelfareU said: “Our analysis shows a clear trend in terms of time spent on social media and mental health outcomes.
“Children who use social media apps for longer periods of time and into the evening may be balancing the sleep they need to function healthily. We think this is the main reason why we’re seeing a lasting impact on children’s mental health.”
Earlier this month the government launched a consultation to gather views on measures to protect children online, which could include a partial social media ban for under-16s.
Last year, Australia became the first country to ban under-16s from using social media. In the first few days after the ban took effect in December, 4.7 million young people’s accounts were disabled, removed or restricted.
Toledano said there was no evidence to support a similar ban in the UK, as well as current non-statutory guidance to make phones banned in schools a legal ban despite growing support for both.
“The picture is complex and multifactorial, and we need to better unravel what is driving the relationships we see,” he said. “Despite calls for an outright ban on under-16s, there is no evidence this will solve all the problems children face.
“Rather than the UK jumping to an arbitrary ban, it might be wiser to look at what has happened in Australia over the course of this year and the effects of the ban on the health and wellbeing of young people.”
The findings were published in the journal BMC MedicineResearchers have called for education in secondary schools to raise awareness about digital literacy and sleep. They added that further study is needed because the social media landscape has changed dramatically since the data was collected between 2014 and 2018.
Dr from Imperial’s school of public health Chen Shen said: “We know that social media platforms have changed tremendously over the past decade and will likely change at the same rate, if not more, in the next five to 10 years.
“As platforms, usage and content evolve, we need to continue research to understand how social media use impacts children’s mental health in today’s digital environment.”
