Ask an expert<\/p>\n
Parenting columnist Katherine Martinko is answering your questions<\/a> about social media and teens at 11 a.m. (ET) on Monday.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been just over three months since Australia became the first country in the world to ban social media for youth under 16, deactivating millions of accounts and spurring other governments to consider similar restrictions.<\/p>\n The law, which targets TikTok<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, X, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, Twitch, Threads and Kick, aims to reduce the negative impact of social media on adolescents. (Though personal accounts are banned, kids under 16 are still able to see public content<\/a> on YouTube, TikTok and Facebook.) <\/p>\n Over the past few years, lawmakers, parents, teachers and some teens have increasingly raised the alarm about the dangers of social media: increasing rates of anxiety and depression, body image issues, exposure to violent content and cyberbullying. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Australia’s social-media restrictions became law under the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who played host to Mark Carney in Canberra this month.Hilary Wardhaugh\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Despite Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese boasting that millions of teens have already been booted from the platforms, young people have found ways to circumvent the law by using AI-generated images to fool age verification checks, VPNs (virtual private networks) to appear as if they\u2019re accessing the internet from other countries or fabricating new accounts with fake birthdays. <\/p>\n But the landmark bill has reverberated around the world, as more countries and jurisdictions are now debating if they should adopt their own age limits. Some countries, including France, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, have already passed similar laws that will soon be in effect. <\/p>\n Is social media negatively affecting kids and teens? We answered your questions<\/a><\/p>\n In Canada, the federal government is considering a ban on social media<\/a> for youth under 14, as part of a forthcoming Online Harms bill. Currently, Canadian privacy law requires kids under 13 to get parental consent to access social media.<\/p>\n Yet as lawmakers, child safety advocates and Big Tech companies argue over what a future with strict age limits on social media could look like, Canadian teens themselves have been largely left out of the conversation. <\/p>\n The Globe and Mail spoke over video with four teenagers \u2013 17-year-old Logan Cyr in Calgary; 14-year-old Hargun Kaur in Oakville, Ont.; 17-year-old Nour Alzoubi in Charlottetown and 16-year-old Theo Wright in Toronto \u2013 to get their thoughts on the current state of social media. <\/p>\n They all joined social media platforms as tweens and young teens, at first to mainly keep in touch with friends on Snapchat, the messaging service Discord, and Instagram. <\/p>\n As they got older, they started posting their own content, following influencers and using the sites to stay connected to cultural communities. And they\u2019ve also felt the harmful side effects of social media, from doomscrolling to misinformation.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Logan Cyr, 17: \u2018The way [misinformation] spreads, it\u2019s like nobody cares enough to correct it, even if they know it\u2019s not true.\u2019Todd Korol\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Nour Alzoubi, 17: \u2018I use social media to connect with people from my culture … but there was a lot of misinformation about my country, about the region I lived in.\u2019Nathan Rochford\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n How do you mostly use social media? To talk with friends, other people you don\u2019t know personally, or to follow celebrities and brands? Hargun <\/p>\n It\u2019s kind of all three things. I follow my friends and talk to them. I follow celebrities and certain brands on it. In my [school] district, we have a heavy online presence. Everyone has Instagram. So even if you don\u2019t know them, and they go to a high school that you know, you\u2019d probably still follow them back.<\/p>\n Theo<\/p>\n Kind of similar for me. I have people I follow on Instagram that I\u2019ve never met in real life \u2013 like a lot of people \u2013 to the point where I can\u2019t really keep track of all of them. I do follow some joke pages or meme pages, but I don\u2019t really follow celebrities or brands, because why would I? <\/p>\n Nour<\/p>\n I basically just started using it to text my friends. But then it got to a point where I was like, \u201cOh my god, FOMO. What am I missing out on?\u201d because everybody would be talking about these trends, and I wasn\u2019t really a person who really engaged in social media in Grade 6 when everybody had all these other apps. <\/p>\n Hargun<\/p>\n I agree with Nour. I did have huge FOMO in Grade 6 when I saw everyone who had Snapchat and Instagram, I definitely was like, \u201cWhat am I missing out on?\u201d Because I just was on Discord and Google Chat, so I wasn\u2019t that online. And once I got on the internet, it took me a while to be like, \u201cThis is a waste of time,\u201d but I still need to know what\u2019s happening, to be in the \u201cit group\u201d of the school.<\/p>\n Logan<\/p>\n I used to use social media exclusively for messaging. Then I started using it for posting, and then I started scrolling because if the people you follow look at your post, you\u2019re presumably gonna look at theirs in return. <\/p>\n Then eventually you get brands or something else that are shoved your way, even if you don\u2019t follow them. It\u2019s quite pervasive. For me, it\u2019s bodybuilding-related things because I purchase supplements. Then you get the targeted advertisements, and all of a sudden, you have bodybuilding in your feed when you don\u2019t care whatsoever. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Meta’s data centres store the posts and photos of millions of users, and there are complex algorithms to decide which information appears on whose feeds.Andy Tullis\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n Does it feel like algorithms really dictate what you see? Do you feel their influence? Logan<\/p>\n The way [misinformation] spreads, it\u2019s like nobody cares enough to correct it, even if they know it\u2019s not true. The algorithm\u2019s biggest problem is that it doesn\u2019t know what to prioritize. It\u2019s trying to feed you 1,000 things at once, and you don\u2019t care about any of them. <\/p>\n Nour<\/p>\n And it\u2019s in such short form. My brain\u2019s just processing it all at once, and it\u2019s, like, do I really care? I was just watching a video about cats, and now I\u2019m watching a video about World War III potentially coming. So yes, it\u2019s the algorithm, but it\u2019s also the short form. People don\u2019t care. Especially like young kids, they\u2019re not going to care. They\u2019re just going to see it: Okay, nice next. Let\u2019s see what\u2019s next. What does it have for me next? It feels very unhealthy. <\/p>\n Hargun<\/p>\n The short form makes you feel like you aren\u2019t watching that much content, but when I look at my screen time at the end of the day, I\u2019m like, how did I spend one hour and 30 minutes on Instagram? Short content makes you feel like you aren\u2019t watching a lot, when you\u2019re, like, wasting minutes in your life.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n AI-generated images, like this one shared on X purporting to show the island of Santorini, are an ever-present risk for social-media users. Tools designed to catch fakes are in a constant race to keep up.<\/p>\n What kind of misinformation do you see?Theo<\/p>\n It\u2019s always related to news events, and it\u2019s usually meant to garner sympathy. When Charlie Kirk died, there was a rumour going around that his kids were there and they saw their dad die. But that didn\u2019t happen. That\u2019s just something that someone made up in a TikTok comment section. People are making fan fiction of news events. It\u2019s ridiculous. Like, I don\u2019t know, I believed it. Why wouldn\u2019t I? It sounds like something that could happen. <\/p>\n Nour<\/p>\n We were the first Syrian family to come to Prince Edward Island as refugees. I use social media to connect with people from my culture because I was very disconnected from them. But there was a lot of misinformation about my country, about the region I lived in. And I was like, \u201cWhoa, this is the view of the world. What do I believe? What do I not believe?\u201d<\/p>\n I think also what really helped me, which a lot of kids don\u2019t have, is really good parent support. My parents would always talk to me: What are you seeing? What do you think? They were always very talkative with me about what to believe and what not to believe. <\/p>\n One of the reasons the Australian government cited for the ban is social media\u2019s affect on young people\u2019s mental health. What do you make of that reasoning? Hargun<\/p>\n Whenever you post, some random accounts put comments, and they usually comment rude things. It hurts for a couple of seconds, but I feel like that\u2019s just a part of social media. It\u2019s a part of life that I have to deal with \u2013 there are rude and bad people out there. It affects your mental health slightly, and it depends on how strong you are and how willing you are to face those problems. <\/p>\n Nour<\/p>\n Even just the guilt after [scrolling], over a long-term time, that\u2019s going to plummet your mental health. You are not going to feel like yourself. You\u2019re going to keep on comparing yourself to other people. I think self-image is a big one. Even kids at a young age are prone to inflict self-harm because they don\u2019t know the beauty standard. They think the beauty standard is the millions of filters people put on their faces every single day. <\/p>\n Theo<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a bit of an ego thing, but I do feel kind of jealous when I see people my age do better than me, or get more involved than me. I feel like a big contributor of that is social media. <\/p>\n Nour<\/p>\n So many people are affected by social media, but they\u2019re staying quiet. I feel like the kids who do go through a lot of stuff, they can\u2019t talk with anyone about it. There\u2019s not really a lot of good support. We need to be more open and honest, and just be real with each other.<\/p>\n Hargun<\/p>\n I agree with Nour. The people who have faced this, they usually aren\u2019t that open. It\u2019s happened to me. I wasn\u2019t as open as I should have been. We also have to consider there\u2019s an entire side of the internet that hasn\u2019t faced these things. I sometimes see on my feed comments like \u201cWe should bring cyberbullying back.\u201d Like, no, we should not. We have to educate people more.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n The Canadian government is still developing an Online Harms bill, and considering wither to limit social-media use for youth under 14.Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n Do you think the Canadian government should consider introducing an age limit for social media? Hargun<\/p>\n I think the government thinks a ban would make it safe for children, but children are going to find a way, whether the government likes it or not. And if they\u2019re not meant to be on these platforms anymore, but they\u2019re still on them, they won\u2019t be as controlled as they usually were because the platform expects no children to be on the platform. <\/p>\n Theo<\/p>\n I don\u2019t really know if there are a lot of benefits because if someone really wants to go on social media, they\u2019re going to do it, whether it\u2019s allowed or not. It\u2019s like drugs. You can ban it, but it\u2019s still going to happen. I think there are a lot of people who only have online friends, and there are a lot of people who would be negatively affected if we did remove social media. I think if you\u2019re younger [than 16] and you have parental permission, I think that\u2019s probably a good solution. <\/p>\n Nour<\/p>\n I think [the government] really does have the right intentions. It\u2019s just implemented in the wrong way. Being part of the young generation, we are of course going to be biased. We want to have social media. We want to not feel FOMO. The way [the Australian law works], they\u2019ve banned your accounts, not necessarily the app. So you can still scroll, even if you\u2019re not logged in. So yes, you are protecting people from predators and online dangers, but kids are still seeing that misinformation, and it\u2019s rewiring their brains and not letting them focus. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018If there\u2019s no For You page, boom, scrolling can\u2019t exist. And that\u2019s a solid 40 per cent of the harm of social media gone immediately,\u2019 Logan Cyr says.Todd Korol\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n It sounds you all think a straight-up age ban isn\u2019t the right approach. What do you think could make social media better for teens? Hargun<\/p>\n If they improved the reporting policy, that would make a huge difference on social media. The reporting policy is really weak. It takes a lot of time, to the point where you forget that you reported something. Some of the comments are really hateful, but [the platforms] will be like, \u201cOh, this doesn\u2019t classify as a hateful comment\u201d or \u201cyou can just block this person.\u201d I feel like no human would just say, that is not a hateful comment. I feel like a bot is behind this. <\/p>\n Theo<\/p>\n The reporting thing is a big one. I\u2019d also say seeing less pornographic and sexual content on TikTok and Instagram would be good, and less AI-generated content. AI can sometimes be funny, but most of the time it\u2019s just annoying. The bigger issue is there\u2019s a lot more extremist content that goes unpunished, and when it is punished, people say, \u201cOh, it\u2019s our free speech.\u201d Usually it\u2019s right-wing extremism. I see a lot on TikTok and Twitter. <\/p>\n Logan<\/p>\n Something that would fix [social media] is if there was only a search feature. No forcing feeds in your face. There does not need to be a \u201cFor You\u201d page. If there\u2019s no For You page, boom, scrolling can\u2019t exist. And that\u2019s a solid 40 per cent of the harm of social media gone immediately. <\/p>\n Nour<\/p>\n I think, yes, it\u2019s good that the government stepped in, but aren\u2019t the social media apps doing what they were [designed] to do? They want as many people to come on their apps and doomscroll as long as they can. It\u2019s more about how these tech bosses are operating their apps. They don\u2019t really care about changing anything anytime soon, so if we were able to control the apps more and the way they\u2019re getting to young kids, that could be a really good step towards making this problem diminish slowly. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018If they improved the reporting policy, that would make a huge difference on social media,\u2019 Hargun Kaur says.<\/p>\n What\u2019s something you think adults get wrong about teens and social media? Hargun<\/p>\n Personally for my parents, they don\u2019t understand the concept of FOMO. So like, as a kid, I feel like I\u2019m missing out on certain parts if I\u2019m not communicating on Snapchat or Instagram. If you don\u2019t know what things your friend group is talking about, then how are you going to be friends with them? <\/p>\n Theo<\/p>\n A lot of parents don\u2019t understand that, most of the time, if you\u2019re being cyberbullied on the internet, it\u2019s usually not from people you know. If you go to school with someone and they\u2019re making fun of you online, you can talk to them the next day about it. But if you post something and then, like, someone random in the comment section clowns on you for it, there\u2019s not a lot you can do about that. You just have to take it, and that\u2019s why a lot of people do it. It\u2019s because you get a reaction. <\/p>\n Nour<\/p>\n I feel like they just think it\u2019s all bad and dangerous for you, but there are some good components to it. It\u2019s been a source of so many opportunities for youth to take a part of, and [social media] is one of the only ways that they can know about them. <\/p>\n Logan<\/p>\n I think adults probably misunderstand how mature their children are. As a child in the 80s, you had to learn through experience. We don\u2019t have to learn through experience. We go into the internet, and we get blasted with all the information that would\u2019ve taken years to learn. We get it in the span of a month. It means you are both more intelligent in your decision-making and more mature than you\u2019re given credit for. <\/p>\n This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed. <\/p>\n Social studies: More from The Globe and MailMachines Like Us podcast<\/p>\n Last month\u2019s school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., set off a fractious debate about technology and privacy when it turned out the suspect had been discussing the attack with ChatGPT. Machines Like Us spoke with Meredith Whittaker,<\/a> president of Signal, about the broader questions of who collects our data.<\/p>\n Samantha Edwards on online culture<\/p>\n How social media stalked me throughout pregnancy<\/a><\/p>\n