A study on the impact of social networks on mental health revealed that 86% of Portuguese young people admit to being addicted to these platforms, a value higher than the European average (78%), and 90% have been using them since they were 13 years old.
The study released today, developed by Dove in Portugal, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, United States, Canada, surveyed 1.200 young people and parents in Portugal.
It concluded that 80% of young people prefer to communicate through social networks, rather than in person, and consider that these are a part of themselves for their peers. They also admit to being bored if they cannot access the platforms.
Two out of five young people recognize that social networks have a negative impact on their mental health “much because of the toxic content they watch”, namely incentives for self-harm (25%) and 90% have already been exposed to toxic beauty content, reveals the study.
About half (45%) observed content that encourages restrictive behavior or eating disorders, 70% have already consumed information that encouraged them to excessively use filters in their photos and videos.
Three out of four young people have seen content that showed “unrealistic, perfect bodies” and say they agree that social media has the power to make them want to change their appearance.
The work now known is supported by the launch of an international petition in collaboration with Mental Health Europe, a European network working on the prevention of mental health problems, which intends to take the issue of online safety for young people to the European Parliament and legislate the social networks.
The study also analyzed parents' views on this issue, concluding that 48% feel guilty for not protecting their children well enough from what they see and hear daily 'online', 52% believe that platforms have more power to shape their children's self-esteem and confidence than they do as parents and 40% confirm that content has a negative impact on their children's mental health.
More than 85% of parents agree that social media needs to change to provide a more positive experience for teens and that laws need to be adopted to hold platforms accountable for the damage they are causing to young people's mental health.
Commenting on these data to the Lusa agency, psychologist Eduardo Sá said the study is limited to “making more visible” what parents, teachers and technicians who work with adolescents observe, which is “free, prolonged and unlimited access to social networks without any adult supervision”, which ends up having, in many ways, “a frankly harmful impact on their mental health”.
The spokesperson for the study highlighted the fact that teenagers recognize that they are addicted to social networks and that "they do not find anyone who, in any way, protects them or regularizes their relationship with them".
The study also highlights the way in which teenagers communicate with each other, which is no longer "live voice" as it used to be a generation ago, but fundamentally through digital and social networks in which they are exposed to a reality that should "give food for thought". ”.
On the other hand, said the specialist in Family Health and Parental Education, the study "made it clear" that what adolescents think is reality and what social networks bring them as reality ends up being confused for them, which brings " significant distortions in their formation”.
“[The impact] that social networks often have on the deformation of adolescents, turns out to be a kind of drug (…) and with the consent of the parents and with consequences that, in some cases, are manifestly serious”.
“They end up having contact with content that is absolutely out of the ordinary about beauty. And these contents are so massive, so immersive, that when they are compared with these models that come to them, evidently, they cannot help but feel worse”, he stressed, considering it to be “a very worrying situation”.
The psychologist highlighted the role that parents should have in this matter: “We, the parents, are very dismissive, much more than we were supposed to, without measuring the consequences that all this has on the mental health of our children who, in the short, medium term, ends up being compromised and we have the obligation to intervene in another way because there is a whole void here that ends up being harmful”.
“Therefore, what worries me are not so many teenagers, it is us defining a set of rules that they need to have so that their growth is protected”, he concluded.
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