Debate: More, not less social media content moderation? How to better protect youth mental health online.

Abstract

This article challenges Zhang etal.'s claims that social media content moderation is proving detrimental to youth mental health and asserts that greater emphasis on the systemic risks posed by social media platforms is required. This commentary draws on my lived experience as a bereaved parent, empiricial evidence and ongoing public policy and regulatory debates. Greater attention should be paid to the effects of algorithmic recommendation systems, which can result in teenagers becoming rapidly exposed to large amounts of harmful content on social media sites such as Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok.