Reacción a "A study claims that social media bans for teenagers lack evidence and may carry risks"

The authors of the paper recently published in Frontiers in Developmental Psychology present conclusions based on a review of various experimental studies investigating the effect of restricting access to social media on well-being or mental health. Although they indicate that most of the reviewed studies demonstrated beneficial effects after restricting access, the authors argue that methodological shortcomings call these apparent benefits into question. This leads them to contend that some countries are prohibiting minors' access to social media without knowing what effects this measure will have on their health.

Is limiting minors' access to social media truly unfounded? In their literature review, the authors of this new study do not indicate that they followed the rigorous methodological requirements of a systematic review: they do not adequately explain, for example, the criteria used to select the reviewed studies, the populations studied, how many studies were excluded and why, or exactly which interventions and effects were evaluated. Furthermore, the authors indicate that they chose to select only randomized experimental studies, a very restrictive criterion that disregards evidence from other studies that may have used less conclusive methodologies, but ones more common in real-life settings, where assessments are often based on pre-experimental and quasi-experimental designs, or observational studies.

Should we then restrict minors' access to social media? There is evidence that time spent on social media interferes with healthier behaviors, reducing time spent on physical activity, sleep, and personal interaction. In addition, social media frequently exposes minors to content that promotes risky behaviors, including the use of tobacco products, alcohol, and strategies for achieving extreme thinness. There is also some evidence that time spent on social media could, at least in some cases, be associated with certain mental disorders. However, proposing a ban on minors' access to social media can be a difficult measure to implement and overlooks the need to promote other more effective, necessary, and ethical actions, such as limiting harmful content (such as the spread of false content or the promotion of violence, the use of addictive substances, unhealthy diets, etc.), or the use of addictive design strategies by platforms that base their profits on the connection time of their users.