The U.S. surgeon general is calling for tech companies and lawmakers to take “immediate action” to protect children’s and adolescents’ mental health on social media.
But after years of insufficient action by both social media platforms and policymakers, parents and young people still bear most of the burden in navigating the fast-changing, often harmful world of secretive algorithms, addictive apps, and extreme and inappropriate content found on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.
So what can parents and young people do now? Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has some tips.
“Our children and adolescents don’t have the luxury of waiting years until we know the full extent of social media’s impact,” Murthy said in an advisory released Tuesday. “Their childhoods and development are happening now.”…