Chhabra Jasleen, Pilkington Vita, Benakovic Ruben, Wilson Michael James, La Sala Louise, Seidler Zac
Centre of Youth Mental Health, Orygen Youth Health, Footscray, Australia.
Movember Foundation, East Melbourne, Australia.
J Med Internet Res. 2025 Jun 20;27:e72061. doi: 10.2196/72061.
High rates of social media use and mental ill-health among young people have drawn significant public, policy, and research concern. Rapid technological advancements and changes in platform design have outpaced our understanding of the health effects of social media and hampered timely evidence-based regulatory responses. While a proliferation of recommendations to social media companies and governments has been published, a comprehensive summary of recommendations for protecting young people's mental health and digital safety does not yet exist.
This scoping review synthesized published recommendations for social media companies and governments in relation to young people's (aged 12-25 years) mental health. A qualitative approach was used to undertake inductive content analysis, where recommendations were grouped under conceptually similar themes.
We searched academic (PubMed, Scopus, and PsycINFO) and nonacademic (Overton and Google) databases for relevant documents. Eligible documents provided recommendations to regulators and social media companies that pertained to social media, young people, and mental health. This review excluded recommendations for young people, caregivers, educators, or clinicians surrounding strategies for managing individual social media use; instead, the recommendations emphasized the regulation or design of social media products and practices of social media companies. Peer-reviewed and gray literature from selected Western contexts (Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States) were relevant for inclusion. Documents were published between January 2020 and September 2024.
Of the identified 4980 unique reports, 120 (2.41%) progressed to full-text screening, and 70 (1.41%) met the inclusion criteria. Five interrelated themes were identified: (1) legislating and overseeing accountability, (2) transparency, (3) collaboration, (4) safety by design, and (5) restricting young people's access to social media.
This review emphasizes the need for multipronged approaches to address the rapidly increasing presence and reach of social media platforms in the lives of young people. These recommendations provide practical and tangible paths forward for governments and industry, backed by expert organizations in youth mental health and technology regulation at a time when expert-informed guidance is sorely needed. Rigorous evaluation of the proposed recommendations is needed while continuing to build on the emerging peer-reviewed evidence base that should form the foundation of policy and regulatory changes.
年轻人中社交媒体使用率高和心理健康问题严重引起了公众、政策制定者和研究界的极大关注。技术的快速进步和平台设计的变化超出了我们对社交媒体健康影响的理解，阻碍了及时基于证据的监管应对。虽然已经发布了大量给社交媒体公司和政府的建议，但尚未有一份全面总结保护年轻人心理健康和数字安全建议的报告。
本范围综述综合了已发表的针对社交媒体公司和政府的与年轻人（12至25岁）心理健康相关的建议。采用定性方法进行归纳内容分析，将建议归为概念上相似的主题。
我们在学术数据库（PubMed、Scopus和PsycINFO）和非学术数据库（Overton和谷歌）中搜索相关文献。符合条件的文献向监管机构和社交媒体公司提供了与社交媒体、年轻人和心理健康相关的建议。本综述排除了围绕管理个人社交媒体使用策略给年轻人、照顾者、教育工作者或临床医生的建议；相反，这些建议强调了社交媒体产品的监管或设计以及社交媒体公司的做法。来自选定西方背景（澳大利亚、加拿大、英国和美国）的同行评审文献和灰色文献符合纳入标准。文献发表时间为2020年1月至2024年9月。
在识别出的4980份独特报告中，120份（2.41%）进入全文筛选，70份（1.41%）符合纳入标准。确定了五个相互关联的主题：（1）立法和监督问责制，（2）透明度，（3）合作，（4）设计安全，（5）限制年轻人使用社交媒体。
本综述强调需要采取多管齐下的方法来应对社交媒体平台在年轻人生活中迅速增加的存在和影响力。这些建议为政府和行业提供了切实可行的前进道路，在急需专家指导的时候，有青年心理健康和技术监管方面的专业组织提供支持。在继续以新兴的同行评审证据为基础（这应成为政策和监管变革的基础）的同时，需要对所提建议进行严格评估。
