Meta
CEO
Mark
Zuckerberg
is
pushing
back
on
the
idea
that
social
media
directly
harms
teen
mental
health.
During
an
interview
with
The
Verge’s
Alex
Heath,
Zuckerberg
said
that
“the
majority
of
the
high-quality
research
out
there
suggests
that
there’s
no
causal
connection
at
a
broad
scale
between
these
things.”
This
echoes
the
statement
Zuckerberg
gave
in
front
of
Congress
in
January
during
a
hearing
about
child
safety,
where
he
argued
that
existing
research
hasn’t
shown
a
causal
link
between
social
media
and
poor
teen
mental
health.
As
my
colleague
Adi
Robertson
pointed
out
at
the
time,
it’s
difficult
to
prove
causal
links,
and
research
shows
social
media
could
cause
both
negative
and
positive
impacts
on
an
adolescent’s
mental
health.
“The
academic
research
shows
something
that
I
think,
to
me,
fits
more
with
what
I’ve
seen
of
how
the
platforms
operate,”
Zuckerberg
told
The
Verge.
“But
it’s
counter
to
what
a
lot
of
people
think,
and
I
think
that’s
going
to
be
a
reckoning
that
we’ll
have
to
have.”
Zuckerberg
argues
that
giving
parents
the
tools
they
need
to
limit
their
child’s
social
media
use
is
the
right
approach
for
the
company:
You
can
play
a
role
in
trying
to
make
something
better
even
if
the
thing
wasn’t
caused
by
you
in
the
first
place...
I
think
that
we
can
play
a
role
in
giving
people
parental
controls
over
the
apps.
I
think
that
parental
controls
are
also
really
important
because
parents
have
different
ways
that
they
want
to
raise
their
kids.
Earlier
this
month,
Instagram
announced
that
it’s
going
to
move
every
teen
on
the
platform
into
a
more
private
account
with
restricted
DMs
and
a
“Sleep
Mode”
feature
to
limit
notifications
at
night.
Meta
also
launched
a
new
suite
of
parental
controls
for
Instagram
and
Messenger
last
year
that
gives
parents
more
insight
into
what
their
kids
are
doing
on
both
platforms.
Concerns
surrounding
the
impact
of
social
media
on
teen
mental
health
heightened
following
the
release
of
the
Facebook
Papers
in
2021,
which
revealed
internal
documents
suggesting
Meta
was
aware
of
the
negative
impact
Instagram
had
on
some
teens.
US
lawmakers
have
since
ramped
up
efforts
to
age-gate
social
media
platforms,
with
many
backing
the
surgeon
general’s
proposal
of
putting
a
tobacco-like
warning
label
on
the
networks.
Zuckerberg
once
again
reiterated
that
he
believes
app
store
owners
like
Google
and
Apple
should
handle
age
verification,
not
individual
platforms.
He
adds
that
it’s
“not
very
excusable”
for
them
to
avoid
taking
responsibility
for
the
measure
because
“every
time
you
go
do
a
payment
on
your
phone,
there
already
is
basically
child
age
verification.”
Despite
Zuckerberg’s
skepticism
about
direct
ties
to
social
media
and
mental
health,
he
told
The
Verge
that
the
company
will
“follow
the
government’s
direction
and
the
laws”
on
child
safety
if
they’re
passed.
“I
would
say
that
the
ability
to
get
push
notifications
and
get
distracted,
from
my
perspective,
seems
like
a
much
greater
contributor
to
mental
health
issues
than
a
lot
of
the
specific
apps.”
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Original author: Emma Roth
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