JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

High rates of social media use among young people, alongside high rates of mental ill health within this cohort, has drawn significant public, policy, and research concern. Rapid advancements in the designs of social media platforms have hindered the ability of researchers and policymakers to empirically understand the health effects of these changes and react appropriately with evidence-based recommendations and regulation. While a sizable amount of policy reports has been published, a comprehensive academic summary of these recommendations does not exist.

Objective:

This rapid review aimed to synthesise published recommendations for social media companies and governments in relation to young people’s (aged 12-25 years) mental health. A qualitative approach was utilised to undertake inductive content analysis of said recommendations, grouping all recommendations into conceptually similar themes alongside.

Methods:

We searched academic (PubMed, SCOPUS, PsychInfo), and non-academic (Overton, Google) databases for documents that presented recommendations to governments and social media companies in relation to safe social media use, young people, and their mental health. Documents were required to be published between January 2020 to September 2024 as a peer-reviewed, case study or grey literature report. Only documents from select, similar western cultural contexts (Australia, Canada, UK, USA) were included.

Results:

Of the 4,980 unique reports identified, 120 reports progressed to full-text screening, and 70 reports met inclusion criteria. Five core interrelated themes of recommendations 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.

Conclusions:

The findings of this review emphasise the need for a multi-pronged approach, implementing the above interrelated themes to address the rapidly increasing presence of social media platforms in young people’s lives. These recommendations provide a practical and tangible path forward for governments and industry, backed by expert organisations in youth mental health and technology regulation, at a time where expert-informed guidance is sorely needed. Future efforts are needed to undertake a rigorous evaluation of each of the recommendations proposed within the five themes, while continuing to build upon the emerging peer-reviewed evidence-base that should form the foundation of these expert-informed recommendations.