Age 13 Is Too Young for Social Media, Says Surgeon General
When should kids be allowed to use social media? Most platforms allow users starting at 13 years old, but according to Education Week, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says that is too early.
On CNN’s “Newsroom” Murthy laid out his rationale: kids are still “developing their identity, their sense of self” in early adolescence, and “the skewed, and often distorted, environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children.”
During adolescence, tween and teen brains naturally become more tuned in to social rewards. It’s part of the natural developmental process in the brain. A recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics shows that children who use social media early (and frequently) “become overly sensitive to anticipating social risks and rewards from peers,” with negative repercussions for their psychological adjustment.
Educators and parents are taking note. Not only have individual families filed lawsuits against social media titans, but multiple school districts are suing the parent companies of TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat, citing the pernicious effect their social media platforms are having on youth social, emotional, and mental health.
Some experts believe the conversation needs to shift from the ideal to the possible. “Would it be nice, would it be good if we could keep young people off social media?” said Sherri Hope Culver, an associate professor at Temple University professor and director of the university’s Center for Media and Information Literacy. “That probably would be great, but that seems like an unhelpful discussion to be having. They are on social media. They are not going to not be on social media.”
Even if rules were to change regarding age restrictions on social media platforms, kids would find ways around them, and companies have not invested much effort in enforcing the age limits they have, she notes.
Rather than pursuing fruitless efforts to police social media use, the “more effective and worthwhile” conversation should be about how adults can help children have a healthy relationship with social media, said Culver, and “that is where media literacy comes in.”
She argues that media literacy – “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication,” according to the National Association for Media Literacy Education – should be taught to every student, beginning in kindergarten.
Why start so early? Almost all of the information that kids access comes from a media source, she explains.
While not knocking media literacy, Surgeon General Murthy believes the onus should not be only on kids, parents, and educators to mitigate social media harm. The companies who profit from these products must be held to account.
“If we tell a child, use the force of your willpower to control how much time you’re spending, you’re pitting a child against the world’s greatest product designers, and that’s just not a fair fight,” he said. He advocates for stronger safety standards for platforms and increased transparency from social media firms about the impact of their products on youth mental health.
Read the full article at Education Week.
Langreo, Lauraine. “Surgeon General: Kids Under 14 Should Not Use Social Media.” Education Week, 2 Feb 2023, https://www.edweek.org/leadership/surgeon-general-kids-under-14-should-not-use-social-media/2023/02.
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