General Article Social media is nothing like drugs, despite all the horror stories

Topic Selected: Teen Self-Care
This article is 8 years old. Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.

 

Andy Przybylski, University of Oxford and Amy C Orben, University of Oxford

Letting your child use social media is like giving them cocaine, alcohol and cigarettes – all at once, or so we’re told. If you have been following recent press reports about the effects of social media on young people, you may well believe this. But there is no scientific evidence to support such extreme claims.

The real story is far more complex. It is very difficult to predict how social media will affect any s...

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