Tech companies urged to protect young from dangers of excessive screen time

Technology firms risk repeating the mistakes of tobacco companies if they fail to take responsibility for the threats that their products and services pose to young people’s mental health.

This provocative claim comes from a thinktank which wants the firms to establish guidelines for the recommended daily use of their technology. It is made in Screened Out, a report to be published on Thursday by the Strategic Society Centre (SSC), which says smartphone manufacturers and online social networking sites need to consider how young people are affected by their businesses – and potentially redesign their products and services accordingly.

The report was produced in response to research by Dr Cara Booker of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, published in the American Journal of Public Health, which found that, among 10- to 15-year-olds, chatting on social networking websites and game-console use were associated with higher chances of socio-emotional problems. Booker’s work suggests that heavy use of smartphones, tablets and games consoles was also associated with lower levels of happiness among adolescents.

“New technologies, smartphones, tablets and social networking sites have brought great benefits to millions of people, including children,” said James Lloyd, director of the SSC. “However, there is enough evidence for policymakers and companies to be worried about the effects these technologies and social media have on the wellbeing of some young people. The big technology companies of today must actively engage with this issue, or risk being like the tobacco companies of yesteryear who wouldn’t acknowledge the public health consequences of their business.”

Lloyd said the government needed to “empower young people through education in the classroom to understand how usage of social networking sites and screen-based media can influence their wellbeing, for example, by making them feel inadequate next to the online lives presented by peers”.

Booker welcomed the call for technology companies to play a greater role in protecting their consumers. “Many of the most effective solutions to our major public health issues have come about when researchers, government and private industry work together,” she said. “Examples include car safety, including more effective seatbelts, removal of lead from paint, discontinuation of asbestos use and milk pasteurisation. In many of these cases, however, solutions were only sought when the consequences were great and well-established.”

The SSC has drawn up recommendations which it believes could help to improve the wellbeing of adolescents and compel technology companies to acknowledge their responsibilities. These include issuing national guidelines on the recommended amount of screen time young people should engage in each day and redesigning hardware and online experiences to ensure their wellbeing. The SSC also wants compulsory school programmes on how social networking sites and mobile technologies can affect their well-being, “for example, through pushing out time for face-to-face relationships and encouraging ‘social jealousy’”.

Booker said that the proliferation of social media and access to the internet through computers and handheld devices was “one of the greatest changes to society” in recent decades.

“One of the consequences of this increase in use is the effect it has on those who use it, particularly adolescents,” she said. “The evidence regarding use of social media and wellbeing is growing and it is imperative that researchers, government and private industries work together to address the real public health consequences of poor wellbeing in adolescence becoming worse wellbeing in adulthood. This issue is not one that parents alone can tackle; it is one that requires government and private industry to raise awareness of the potential issues with prolonged use of social media for children and adolescents.”

The SSC also floated ideas that could help children when using electronic media. These include encouraging them to keep social media diaries to help them “balance” their online and offline lives and for social networking sites to install “virtual” usage meters as default settings for all users who are under 18, so that they are made aware of how long they are spending online.