While in the United Kingdom doctors compare the risks of social media for younger people to those of tobacco. The EU is also considering cracking down on manipulative mechanisms designed to capture children’s attention.
For years, fears about effects of social networks for the youngest they remained confined to the terrain of educational concerns or debates between parents. Now, however, the language has become much harsher. In the United Kingdom, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges – a body representing 23 medical colleges and faculties between the United Kingdom and Ireland – compared the risks of social media for children and adolescents to those historically associated with smoking or not wearing a seat belt in a car.
A heavy accusation, which photographs a clear change of tone in the public debate, which is veering from simple prudence towards an invasive technology, to the perception of a real health issue. The issue is not so much whether smartphones and digital platforms can have negative effects – there has already been consensus on this for some time – but rather understanding whether and how limit access without producing unwanted side effects.
Clinical alarm
The position of British doctors arises from concrete data collected among healthcare professionals. In a survey conducted on 132 operators of the sector, over half declared that they observe at least one case a week of possible health damage linked to the use of technology and digital devices and, indeed, more than a third reported encountering similar consequences several times a week.
The problems described range from mental health (anxiety and trauma from exposure to violent or disturbing content) up to physical damageincluding incidents or imitative behavior triggered by extreme content viewed online.
What is of particular concern is theexposure “without filters”that is, continuous access to platforms designed to hold attention through notifications, autoplay and infinite scrolling. In this context, British doctors ask the legislators to intervene decisivelyarguing that the phenomenon now has a health relevance comparable to that of other large public prevention campaigns.
Bans coming
The United Kingdom is already considering concrete measures. There are hypotheses on the table ranging from total ban on access to social media for under 16s up to more targeted restrictions, such as digital curfews, daily time limits or the blocking of some functions considered particularly dangerous due to the degree of dependence they generate in children.
The debate, however, remains open. Not all experts agree on the effectiveness of an absolute ban, while many adolescents openly contest the idea of being excluded from tools that they perceive as an integral part of social life.
The Australian experience, the first major regulatory laboratory in this field, has already shown that the issue is complex: reducing access can produce benefits, but also risks pushing some young people towards less controlled alternative platforms. For this reason, more and more governments seem to be moving not so much towards a clear “no” but rather towards one adjustment of the more aggressive characteristics of these applications.
European squeeze
This is precisely the direction that theEuropean Union. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently opened up the possibility of introducing more stringent age limits for access to social media, including the topic within the future Digital Fairness Act, the new European legislation against manipulative digital practices. The objective would not be simply to ban the use of the platforms by children, but to intervene on the very design of social networks: infinite scrolling, automatic video playback, continuous push notifications and other mechanisms designed to capture and retain attention.
The question, summarized von der Leyenit’s not whether young people should have access to social media, but whether social media should have access to young people. A formulation that describes the paradigm shift well: the problem is no longer just the use that children and adolescents make of platforms, but the way in which the latter are designed and which inevitably ends up influencing their behavior.
