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Ahmed Othman isn\u2019t on TikTok and doesn\u2019t want to be.<\/p>\n
He and his younger sister got iPhones when they were in eighth and seventh grade respectively, but with no social media, just iMessage. Their parents, who are both computer scientists, spent the next year teaching them about social media, bombarding them with studies about its effects on teen mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey really tried to emphasize social media is a tool, but can also be like your worst enemy if you so make it,\u201d Othman said.<\/p>\n
Now 17, Othman credits his parents\u2019 deep involvement for what he calls a \u201chealthy relationship\u201d with his phone. That includes staying away from TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe algorithm is so potent that I feel like, you know, TikTok might not benefit me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Othman, who\u2019s originally from Libya and lives in Massachusetts, is an outlier among his peers, nearly two-thirds of whom are on TikTok either with or without their parents\u2019 permission, according to the Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n
Othman\u2019s parents took a middle ground approach that a growing number of experts say is the most realistic and effective way of teaching children about social media<\/a>: Rather than\u00a0an outright ban<\/a>\u00a0or allowing free reign, they recommend a slow, deliberate onboarding that gives children the tools and information they need to navigate a world in which places like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat<\/a> are almost impossible to escape.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot just expect that the kids will jump into the world of social media, learn how to swim on their own,\u201d said Natalie Bazarova, a professor of communications and director of the Cornell Social Media Lab. \u201cThey need to have instruction. They need to have practice on how to behave on social media. They need to have understanding of risks and opportunities. And they also need to learn that in a way that is age appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n The harms to children from social media have been well-documented in the two decades since Facebook\u2019s launch ushered in a new era in how the world communicates. Kids who spend more time on social media, especially when they are tweens or young teenagers, are more likely to experience depression and anxiety, according to\u00a0multiple studies<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 though it is not yet clear if there is a causal relationship.<\/p>\n Many are exposed to content that is not appropriate for their age, including pornography and violence. They also face bullying, sexual harassment and unwanted advances from their peers as well as adult strangers. Because their brains are not fully developed, teenagers are also more affected by social comparisons than adults, so even happy posts from friends could send them into a negative spiral.<\/p>\n Lawmakers have taken notice and have held multiple congressional hearings \u2014\u00a0most recently in January<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 on child online safety. Still, the last federal law aimed at protecting children online was enacted in 1998, six years before Facebook\u2019s founding.<\/p>\n Last May,\u00a0U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy<\/a>\u00a0issued a warning saying there is not enough evidence to show that social media is safe for kids and urged policymakers to address the harms of social media the same way they regulate things like car seats, baby formula, medication and other products children use. Parents, he stressed, can\u2019t do it all, although some \u2014 like Othman\u2019s \u2014 try.<\/p>\n Othman at first wanted a phone \u201cwith everything on it, no restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut like now, after the years passed, I really do understand and appreciate what they did,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Of course, the Othmans\u2019 approach may not work for every family. Most parents are not computer scientists, and many don\u2019t have the time or expertise to create a crash-course on social media for their children.<\/p>\n But even when parents are vigilant, that\u2019s still no guarantee their children won\u2019t fall prey to social media\u2019s traps.<\/p>\n Neveen Radwan thought she did everything right when she gave her children phones: putting restrictions on their accounts, having access to their passwords, taking away their phones at night, setting everything to private.<\/p>\n \u201cI made sure that everything was very, very, you know, airtight,\u201d said Radwan, who worked in information technology for 20 years.<\/p>\n Her daughter didn\u2019t get a phone until she was 13. She started using social media in the eighth grade. When she was 16, she was diagnosed with anorexia.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were right in the beginning of (the COVID lockdowns) and it progressed very quickly because we were at home and she was on social media quite a bit at the time,\u201d Radwan recalled.<\/p>\n An avid athlete, the teen started looking for workouts and ways to stay healthy on Instagram. Soon, though, the algorithm began showing her social media challenges like \u201chow to stay under 500 calories a day\u201d and \u201cif you want to stay skinny, you need to be able to fit in a baby swing.\u201d Within two or three months, Radwan said her daughter was in the hospital.<\/p>\n Today, Radwan speaks about the harms of social media to teens and has joined a lawsuit against Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms Inc. that seeks to hold the tech giant accountable for the harms its platforms have caused to children and teens. Her daughter has recovered and is attending college.<\/p>\n While parents are definitely part of the equation, most of the the teens and experts interviewed by The Associated Press pointed to schools as the key place where all children can learn about \u201cdigital citizenship,\u201d the umbrella term that includes news media literacy, cyberbullying, social media balance and now even artificial intelligence literacy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have sex education. We don\u2019t have things about like online safety,\u201d said Bao Le, a 18-year-old freshman at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. \u201cAnd a lot of kids are dying of suicide, you know, text sextortion. So I think it\u2019s really important the school also teaches this.\u201d<\/p>\n But while some schools offer digital literacy or online safety programs, these are still few and far between. Teachers already face pressure to teach the regular curriculum while also dealing with staffing shortages and funding issues. Not only that, but kids are often encouraged to be on social media if they want to participate in extracurricular activities and other school programs.<\/p>\nFew guardrails<\/h2>\n
When it\u2019s not enough<\/h2>\n
Are schools the answer?<\/h2>\n