negative effects of social media on law enforcement

Negative effects of social media on law enforcement full#
Negative effects of social media on law enforcement verification#

Unfortunately, with current technology, it is impossible to verify a user’s age with complete accuracy without asking the user to provide a form of identification, which is what Utah’s law requires. Whereas the APA’s advisory acknowledges the difficulty in establishing an exact age at which it is appropriate for children to begin using social media, the Surgeon General’s advisory recommends “strengthening and enforcing age minimums” for social media use. Josh Hawley (R-MO), would set a national minimum age for social media of 16.

Some proposed or recently enacted laws, including Utah’s new social media law, would mandate age verification on social media. However, not all of its recommendations reflect this lack of consensus, nor do many of the current efforts to protect children on social media, including age-related restrictions. The Surgeon General’s advisory on “Social Media and Youth Mental Health” also acknowledges that social media has both positive and negative impacts on children and teens, and highlights the lack of research-backed consensus on the subject. Finally, the advisory calls for more research into the positive and negative effects of social media on teens.

The advisory also recommends adult monitoring of early adolescents’ social media use and increased autonomy for older adolescents, which is at odds with Utah’s new law that gives parents full control over their teens’ social media use. Several of the advisory’s recommendations are in line with social media platforms’ existing policies against harmful and illegal content. For example, Instagram restricts direct messages (DMs) between adults and teens who do not follow them, displays a safety notice on suspicious DMs to teens, and encourages teens to make their accounts private when they sign up.Īnother area of concern, the effects of social media on teens’ mental health, is the subject of the APA’s May 2023 health advisory, which states that, “Using social media is not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people.” It stresses the importance of social media for social support, particularly for teens struggling with mental illness and teens from marginalized communities, including LGBTQ teens. In addition, some social media platforms have taken measures to prevent online exploitation. Many parents monitor their children’s digital behavior in order to keep their children safe online: 60 percent of parents of 13- to 17-year-olds check their teens’ social media profiles. Minors are also potentially vulnerable to online exploitation. Most, if not all, major platforms have policies prohibiting glorifying harmful behaviors such as suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders, as well as policies aimed at addressing online harassment and cyber-bullying. These approaches include banning certain types of content, including using warning labels, and only showing graphic or adult content to users who are 18 or older.

Social media platforms have different approaches to ensuring graphic or adult content is not widely accessible to underaged users. Some people are bound to use any new communication medium to distribute content that is inappropriate for minors. That is not to say concerns are wholly unwarranted. From the more familiar concerns over television, video games, music, smartphones, and social media to historical concerns over radio, the printing press, pocket novels, and writing, the cycle of panic over new technological developments and their impact on youth is age-old and unlikely to stop.

Despite a lack of scientific consensus on how social media affects children, lawmakers have been rushing to implement policies that would, in many cases, create more problems than they solve.Ĭoncerns over how technology use will affect children and adolescents are nothing new. Surgeon General and the American Psychological Association (APA). The effect of social media on children has been at the center of recent debate, with multiple bills at the federal and state level and recent advisories from the U.S.

Negative effects of social media on law enforcement verification#

Negative effects of social media on law enforcement full#