Social media is causing untold harm

• 9 in 10 youth mental health specialists say exposure to harmful beauty content on social media can lead to physical consequences, like disordered eating or self-harm.

• More than half of kids say social media makes them and their peers feel anxious, and 3 in 4 say social media makes them want to change their appearance.

• 1 in 3 who recalled seeing self-harm content on Instagram reported that they have performed the same (or very similar) self-harming behaviour as a consequence

• For boys, moving from 2 to 5 hours of daily use of social media is associated with a doubling of depression rates. For girls, it’s associated with a tripling.¹

• There is now a great deal of evidence that social media doesn’t just correlate but actually causes depression and anxiety.²

The platforms are fully aware of the harms they are causing. Facebook’s own internal research--leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen to journalists at the Wall Street Journal--shows that they have known since 2018 that Instagram harms many teen girls.

Parents are made to feel guilty for not protecting their children, young people are shamed for too much time on it, yet billions of £££ss go into designing platforms to keep us on them. The blame and shame must not be on parents and kids, it must be on those who have the power to make social media safer.