{"id":259052,"date":"2025-07-12T13:39:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T13:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/259052\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T13:39:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T13:39:15","slug":"warnings-mount-to-shield-childrens-mental-health-from-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/259052\/","title":{"rendered":"Warnings mount to shield children\u2019s mental health from social media"},"content":{"rendered":"

European countries should implement measures to better protect the mental health of children and adolescents from harm caused by social media, the WHO has recommended in a new policy document.<\/p>\n

The document calls on government, industry and civil society to take immediate action to make digital spaces safer, healthier and more equitable for young people. It also recommends involving health authorities and young people in drawing up policies and shifting the burden of proof for service providers from proving harm to proving safety.<\/p>\n

This policy recommendation is relevant to Malta after, last October, an international study into children\u2019s health revealed that Maltese teenagers ranked the second highest out of 44 countries for addiction-like social media use, with girls at higher risk than boys.<\/p>\n

The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey<\/a> had found that nearly one in four Maltese adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15\u00a0exhibited an addictive-like pattern of social media use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This had spurred Natasha Azzopardi Muscat<\/a>, WHO Europe\u2019s director for Country Health Policies and Systems, to call for a national debate on regulating social media use among children and teenagers.<\/p>\n

While no national discussion has started as yet, San Anton School ignited the conversation recently by launching an initiative <\/a>to delay children\u2019s access to smartphones and social media, to try to combat the rise of digital dependency and online harm from an early age.<\/p>\n

Government open to national discussion <\/strong><\/p>\n

Equality and Reforms Junior Minister Rebecca Buttigieg has emphasised the urgent need to regulate social media platforms, stating their impact can no longer be ignored. Prime Minister Robert Abela said children under the age of 13 could have their access to social media restricted by law.<\/p>\n

Asked if there were plans to take this to a national level, the Education Ministry said it is \u201copen to wider national discussions on this issue\u201d adding that any action must be \u201cbalanced and based on what\u2019s best for children, both in and out of school\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ministry noted that the Family and Community School Link programme<\/a>, launched last year, was a key step in this direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Involving young people themselves <\/strong><\/p>\n

The policy brief \u2013 developed by WHO\/Europe, together with the Polish Ministry of Health and the Digital Transformations for Health Lab (DTH-Lab) \u2013 had one key message: that the digital environment, from social media to AI-driven platforms, is a documented risk to the mental health of children and adolescents in the WHO European Region \u2013 but countries can already work to protect them<\/p>\n

The document reviewed existing policies used across 42 countries. It found that many national policies place heavy responsibility on users and caregivers\u00a0\u2013 for example, through following recommended age restrictions on social media and setting parental controls on devices.<\/p>\n

RELATED STORIES<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Other initiatives focus on improving digital literacy among young people to help them navigate the online environment safely.<\/p>\n

More recent policies show a\u00a0greater focus on tackling addictive platform design and enforcing regulation of the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to adopt polices and regulations that are targeted, enforceable and informed by evidence,\u201d said Azzopardi-Muscat, adding: \u201cAnd importantly, ensuring young people participate in shaping these developments will allow countries to create policies that actually have impact, because they fit young people\u2019s needs and preferences.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Risks to be managed<\/strong><\/p>\n

The document noted that children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the risks associated with online environments owing to their developmental stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cExtensive research has been conducted over the past five years on the relationship between young people\u2019s technology use and various mental health outcomes including depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide-related behaviours, and well-being outcomes such as loneliness, low self-esteem and stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED STORIES<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Studies have identified a\u00a0range of harms that young people are exposed to online, including cyberbullying, violence, pornography, pressure to obtain an unrealistic or unhealthy physical appearance or lifestyle, sextortion, self-harm and disordered eating triggers, marketing of harmful products, and gambling.<\/p>\n

The study noted benefits to the use of social media, such as enabling self-expression and facilitating connection. It also noted that the effects of technology are not uniform across all young people: the most vulnerable young people disproportionately experience negative impacts. The document went on to list eight urgent policy actions.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Education Ministry said it is ‘open to wider national discussions on this issue’ adding that any action must be ‘balanced and based on what\u2019s best for children, both in and out of school’. Photo: Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n

Urgent policy actions<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Making digital well-being a national public health priority\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Regulating platform design to limit addictive and harmful features\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Empowering health workers to guide safe tech use\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Supporting youth-led digital governance\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Increasing investment in offline alternatives to screen-based entertainment\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Applying proven, intersectoral public health strategies to improve digital well-being\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Developing clear guidance on digital well-being and healthy technology use\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2022 Holding industry and commercial interests to account.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European countries should implement measures to better protect the mental health of children and adolescents from harm caused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[105,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-259052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114840545914187300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}