Developmental psychologist Candice Odgers, who has studied adolescent mental health for 25 years, warns that the push to ban social media for teenagers may be misguided.
She argues that the debate overlooks bigger issues facing youth, such as the impact of COVID-19 and the health of their caregivers.
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Odgers, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, says the quickest way to make the internet safer for children would be to remove all adult men from it.
Men are the primary perpetrators of sextortion and misinformation, she notes, though she does not advocate this as policy.
Her stance contrasts sharply with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, who argues that social media is causing an epidemic of mental illness.
Haidt has kept his 16-year-old daughter off social media entirely.
Odgers, however, gave her children smartphones at age 11 and allowed her daughter to use Snapchat at the same age.
Odgers is frustrated by global efforts to ban phones in schools and restrict social media for under-16s.
She was disappointed when the UK followed Australia in implementing such a ban.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that bans are likely to make things worse, not better,” she says.
She points to research showing that more than 85% of under-16s in Australia continued using social media three months after the ban.
“They are going to be using it regardless,” she says. “The more we make it a forbidden place, the less likely they will report harms.”
