Instagram launches teen accounts with new restrictions
Meta announced earlier this week that they will introduce “Instagram Teen Accounts”. The company said that the accounts will be a “new experience for teens, guided by parents”. LiveNOW from FOX host Christy Matino spoke to Vanessa Paz Dennen, Professor of Instructional Systems & Learning Technologies to break it all down.
LOS ANGELES – Teens are spending a good chunk of their time consuming online and social media content, according to a recent survey conducted by Pew Research.
Nearly half of teens in the United States are online “almost constantly” despite concerns about the effects of social media and smartphones on their mental health, Pew said.
RELATED: Teens turning to TikTok to self-diagnose mental health issues
YouTube is the most popular
The teens who were surveyed said their most-used social media platforms included YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.
YouTube was the most popular platform as 9 in 10 teens reported using the site, which is slightly down from 2022 when Pew conducted this same survey.
Overall, 73% of teens said they visited YouTube daily, and of those 73%, 15% described their use as “almost constant.”
TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat were also popular among teens with Instagram gaining slightly more popularity since 2022.
Sixty-three percent of teens said they visited TikTok daily and of that 63%, 16% said they were on it constantly.
Roughly half of teens said they went on Instagram and Snapchat every day with almost 13% of them using those two platforms almost constantly.
The platforms that saw a steep decline in use were Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter).
Across all five platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook) one-third of teens said they were using these sites constantly.
RELATED: Half of US teens spend over 4 hours daily on screens, CDC study finds
FILE – A teenager looks at a smartphone screen. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
Social media use and mental health
For better or worse, social media has become a medium for people – not just kids – to socialize, relieve stress and seek advice.
But it has its dark side.
It has become increasingly known that the more time people, especially young people, spend online, the higher the risk of developing mental health problems.
Kids who use social media for more than three hours a day face double the risk of depression and anxiety, according to studies cited by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who issued an extraordinary public warning last spring about the risks of social media to young people.
In June, Murthy called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms and their effects on young people’s lives, similar to those that are mandatory on cigarette boxes.
“Social media today is like tobacco decades ago: It’s a product whose business model depends on addicting kids. And as with cigarettes, a surgeon general’s warning label is a critical step toward mitigating the threat to children,” Josh Golin, executive director at Fairplay, an organization that is dedicated to ending marketing to children, said in a statement to The Associated Press in June.
RELATED: Doomscrolling costs us 3 days a month, survey finds
Social media literacy
Social media and screens are everywhere and limiting how much young people consume it can be challenging.
About half of teens report at least one sign of problematic social media use, as the American Psychological Association’s Chief Science Officer Dr. Mitch Prinstein, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, wrote in a Q&A on the APA’s website. (Prinstein also co-chaired the advisory panel.)
These warning signs include being unable to stop even when they want to, lying in order to continue using social media, failing to keep up with daily routines, schoolwork or relationships, sleep disruptions and stunted activity levels, according to the APA.
Experts suggest that before teens should even be allowed to use social media, they should go through a type of “training” for social media literacy.
This training could help give young people the skills and knowledge to create a balance in their social media use.
“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,” said APA President Thema Bryant.
This type of training could help teens think more critically about social media content and be less likely to buy into inaccuracies, generalizations and misinformation, per the advisory. It could also help them deal with online conflicts in a healthy way.
