How do teens healthy "online chat"? The American Psychological Association summarizes 10 recommendations

Interviewed expert: Cao Dagang, mental health supervisor of primary and secondary schools in Zhejiang Province

Global Times health client reporter Ren Linxian

On May 9, local time, the official website of the American Psychological Association first released recommendations to guide adolescents to use social media, and pointed out that although social media can promote healthy social interaction, adolescents should undergo social media literacy training before using it to ensure that they can maximize a balanced, safe and meaningful use experience. "Just like a driver's license, you can't 'hit the road' with social media without rules." Dr. Sima Bryant, president of the American Psychological Association, said that due to the different rates of brain development and mental maturity of adolescents, the healthy growth of some children may be negatively affected, which requires adolescents individuals, families, schools, governments, relevant practitioners, etc. to jointly assume the social responsibility of ensuring the healthy use of the Internet for adolescents.

Bryant set up an advisory group to review the scientific literature, summarize teens' social media habits and make 10 recommendations. Cao Dagang, a mental health supervisor at primary and secondary schools in Zhejiang Province, said that this has certain reference significance for mainland teenagers to use social media.

1. Adolescents should be encouraged to use social media to create opportunities for social support, online companionship and emotional intimacy, and to promote healthy socialisation (the process of growing from a "biological person" to a "social person" adapted to the social environment). Numerous studies have shown that teens' psychological development may benefit from online social interaction, especially when socially distancing, stressed, and seeking to connect with their peers.

2. Social media functions should be appropriate to the developmental level of adolescents. For example, "Like" and "Like" buttons, recommended content, time limits, and other features. Cao explains that adolescence is a critical period for the formation of identity, a stage of self-awareness and social adaptation, in which they fear that they will be marginalized and abandoned by the mainstream. Some high-like, popular content, and push content that "induces addiction" under big data algorithms are likely to cause teenagers to have a sense of confusion that ignores their own needs, and become herd and blind. At present, the teen mode used by some social platforms has restrictions on push content types, usage time, etc., which reduces the negative impact to a certain extent. However, under the background of the widespread application of big data algorithms, there are still many social platforms that have not set up a youth mode, which requires the joint efforts of multiple parties.

3. In early adolescence (10~14 years old), it is recommended to supervise the social media use of most adolescents; As your child gets older, gradually increase your child's autonomy and respect his or her privacy needs. Cao Dagang said that teenagers have not yet formed a complete personality and values, so parents and teachers must fully understand their children's use of social media and provide necessary guidance and education in a timely manner. However, it should be noted that around the age of 14 is the peak period of adolescent rebellious behavior, and it is also a period when children have a very strong sense of self, and parents and teachers cannot be too simple and rude when managing and supervising, such as directly asking to hand in mobile phones, check mobile phones, etc. It is recommended that guardians start with prevention, take the initiative to ask children what social media they are using, what content they see, what they are interested in, what they are confused about, and timely pass on the correct way to use social media to help children solve problems.

4. In order to reduce the risk of psychological harm, adolescents' exposure to illegal or unhealthy content on social media should be reduced, prohibited, and weakened as much as possible, including instigating or encouraging adolescents to engage in behaviors that pose health risks, such as self-harm, harming others, and pathological weight loss.

5. In order to minimize psychological harm, adolescents' exposure to "online hatred" should be minimized, including discrimination, prejudice, hatred, cyberbullying, etc. Studies have shown that teens' exposure to online messages of discrimination and hatred increases the risk of anxiety and depression, and even when the likelihood of adolescents being exposed to similar experiences offline is controlled, there are still negative effects. Research also shows that online bullying and harassment can be more serious than offline bullying, with both perpetrators and victims of cyberbullying increasing in recent years. Cao Dagang said that on social media, rumors, vulgarity, curiosity, bottomless content still exist like a stubborn disease, in the massive information, teenagers are easy to get caught up in it, and even some impulsive behavior, which is a problem that cannot be ignored. Parents and teachers must pay attention to their children's online situation, may wish to take the initiative to discuss hot content on social media with their children, "blocking is better than loosening", adults can use richer knowledge, rational thinking, comprehensive perspective, encourage children to participate in online interaction with goodwill, and reduce the negative impact of bad information and values.

6. Regularly screen teens' social media use to prevent "problematic social media use." "Problematic social media use" refers to uncontrollable addiction; Social media use interferes with daily life, schoolwork, relationships, etc., and even lies and causes conflicts in order to continue using social media. Cao Dagang said that in fact, many hidden dangers have long been buried, such as the guardian did not propose restrictions on the use of social media before the child used social media. If you discuss with your child in advance the purpose of using social media, the preset time, etc., the possibility of losing control will be greatly reduced. In addition, some young parents, even have excessive use of the Internet, in the inadvertent details of daily life, play a bad role model for their children, and less time is spent on face-to-face interaction with children, which can easily lead to problematic social media use behavior.

7. Limit the amount of time teens spend on social media so as not to interfere with sleep and physical activity. Studies recommend that adolescents sleep at least 8 hours a night and get regular sleep. Studies have shown that the use of social media within 1 hour of bedtime is associated with sleep disturbances. Lack of sleep disrupts the neurodevelopment, emotional function of the adolescent brain, and increases the risk of suicide.

8. Limit teens' use of social media for comparison. Cao Dagang said that social media has broken the space limit and indeed promoted the comparison behavior, from appearance and clothing to living environment and lifestyle, which can be the content of comparison. Especially for adolescents, self-identity is not perfect, it is easy to fall into the trap of comparison, and even anxiety, depression. Behind the comparison is the inferiority complex, in fact, as long as parents pay attention to the establishment of children's self-confidence, they can prevent the emergence of comparison behavior to a certain extent. When children recognize their own brilliance and have a stronger internal drive, they can look at the actions and words of others more dialectically.

9. Before adolescents use social media, social media literacy training should be conducted to ensure that they have psychological knowledge and skills. Social media can help people broaden their horizons, access counseling, and social freedom. However, the content of social media is not completely equivalent to real life, likes, comments or posts may not represent the thoughts of most people, all online presentation needs to adhere to a dialectical attitude, especially for some "overreaction" and "extreme behavior" should be vigilant, take the initiative to communicate with relatives and friends in reality. In addition, schools and parents should provide regular social media information to teenagers to avoid children falling into social platforms that pose a safety risk. In addition, adolescents should be taught that everyone has the opportunity to help others through their voice online, and that social networks are channels that can spread positive energy.

10. Scientific research on the impact of social media on adolescent development should be strongly supported. For example, relevant entities such as governments and public welfare organizations should invest heavily in supporting research on youth social media use, and relevant enterprises should actively participate in and cooperate with research data sharing. ▲

Responsible editor: Luo Rong

Editor-in-chief: Zhang Tong