A new policy briefing from the Impact of Social Media Algorithms project shares five key recommendations for supporting young people’s wellbeing online.
There is growing concern about the impact of social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram on young people’s mental health; current policy mostly focuses on screen time, harmful content and age restrictions, however, algorithms play a vital part in what adolescents see while online.
Understanding these systems is essential for explaining how digital environments influence adolescent mental health and wellbeing.
Regulating algorithms, as well as screen time
A new briefing, Protecting adolescent mental health requires regulating algorithms, not just screen time, draws on the qualitative study involving 27 UK adolescents aged 14-19 years who shared their TikTok and Instagram recommendation feeds during photo-elicitation interviews.
It provides one of the first detailed wellbeing-related accounts of how young people experience algorithmically-curated social media in everyday life.
Primary author, Dr Lizzy Winstone, is the lead for the Impact of Social Media Algorithms project, which McPin has been supporting.
Five recommendations for adolescent mental health
There are five key recommendations aimed going beyond restricting access and looks at addressing algorithmically driven exposure to content that recommendation systems create.
- Regulate recommendation systems as well as harmful content
- Require age-appropriate algorithmic safety by design
- Give young people meaningful control over recommendations
- Embed algorithmic literacy within education
- Move beyond screen time in public health surveillance
Read the policy briefing in full, and find out more about the individual recommendations on the University of Bristol website.
The Impact of Social Media Algorithms project
We are working with researchers from different universities across the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) School for Public Health Research (SPHR) to explore how young people understand social media algorithms, and how these algorithms may expose them to content that may be beneficial or harmful to their mental health and wellbeing.
We have used the findings to create resources for schools and the public, to facilitate conversations about social media algorithms. One such resource is the new Mind Your Feed website – free teaching materials for supporting young people to understand and navigate social media algorithms safely. This was produced with young people and based on their real algorithmic experiences on TikTok and Instagram, both positive and negative.
