Teens Are Stuck on Their Screens. Here’s How to Protect Them

Screens are an integral part of modern teenage life, but there's little regulation of the types of content teens see and how much they view. Research shows that while online videos can be useful for educating and connecting young people, excessive viewing—and the sneaky ways streaming, social media, and other internet platforms try to attract and engage teens—can negatively affect their emotional and psychological development.

Who's responsible for making sure that teens use their screens safely: The content creators who build algorithms that target and keep adolescents glued to them? Parents who should establish limits on the amount of time and type of videos their children watch? Policymakers who can hold creators and video platforms more accountable for how they provide their content?

In a new report released by the American Psychological Association (APA), experts highlight the latest science in understanding how video viewing of all kinds affects adolescents. Potentially harmful content—such as videos that focus on aggressive behavior, cyber-hate, body shaming, self-harm, suicide, discrimination, and other risky behaviors—can distort adolescents' still-developing views of themselves and of appropriate social behavior. Studies show that teens sometimes mimic or adopt dangerous behaviors they see online, putting themselves and others at risk. Young adults bring different vulnerabilities to what they watch, and those already experiencing stress or trauma, for example, may be more sensitive and affected by content that focuses on these experiences. Those who are more sensitive to body image and emotional content may be negatively affected by videos that prey on these insecurities.

The report also provides recommendations for how parents, educators, policymakers and content creators all could, and should, play a more active role in ensuring that video viewing has positive, rather than harmful, effects on teen health.

“Parents don’t realize that in many cases no one has screened the content their kids are watching to make sure it’s okay for kids,” says Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer for the APA. “We prepare kids for the world they will grow into, whether that includes how to drive safely or how to engage in sexual behavior safely, or how to take care of their bodies. But we are not doing enough in my opinion to prepare kids for how to live in the digital environment.”

Here’s how experts recommend teen video viewing can become more helpful and healthy for young people.

What parents can do

To some extent, parents can set screen time limits, but they should take a more active role in learning about what their children are viewing as well. “These are such unfamiliar platforms for some parents that it’s easy to throw your hands up and say, ‘I don’t understand any of this,’” says Prinstein. “But we have to ask kids to teach us and show them that we’re interested and willing to partner with them to understand what they find enjoyable. Then, they tend to be more open with telling us when stuff confuses or upsets them.”

Spending time viewing and discussing videos with teens fosters conversation around difficult issues presented, such as bullying or inappropriate behaviors. Such conversations should also include guiding them to distinguish between reliable and legitimate sites and sources of information, and less reliable ones that spread misinformation.

Read More: Why the U.S. Surgeon General Wants a Warning Label for Social Media

It's also important for parents to be vocal about what they find appropriate and what’s not, rather than ignoring it. “We have to speak up and ask our kids what they think about what they just saw, says Prinstein. "Otherwise, kids tend to think we agree with what they just viewed.”

The report also explains that parents’ own video viewing habits can influence their children, and if parents practice what they preach—limiting screen time and being selective about what they watch—their children often adopt those patterns as well.

Think about video as a diet, the APA experts suggest. Just as parents guide and teach their kids about healthier and less healthy foods, it’s important for them to educate teens about what content is more educational and potentially helpful—such as the kind that tells stories of how teens navigate the challenges of relationships with family and friends—and what content is less helpful (the kind that focuses on negative behaviors like cyberhate, bullying, and stereotyping).

What educators can do

Digital literacy begins at home but should continue at school, according to the report. Teachers can educate teens about how to become smarter consumers of content.

“I was doing some presentations recently with middle schoolers, and we looked at the privacy section of some apps, and the kids were absolutely shocked when they learned what information of theirs was being used and taken without them fully appreciating or realizing it,” says Prinstein. “Once teens know, they can become very powerful deciders for themselves on what to view and how to view video content.”

Prinstein says schools could also educate teens about the adolescent brain, so they better understand the changes they are experiencing and how to manage them. If they understand why it’s so hard to control their impulses or why it feels so important to be accepted by their peers, then they can start to modify their behaviors, including how they view videos.

What video platform creators can do

The report calls on platform creators to exert stronger control over the algorithms that perpetuate and encourage excessive viewing, and the advertising that is increasingly targeted to teens. Companies can address features such as autoplay that keep teens glued to their screens; many of these features are now driven by AI and may perpetuate the more negative impacts that videos have on teen development.

Comment sections are another source of potential harm, as teens who post content might judge their self-worth by what others say about them. Comments also shape teens’ views of what is “acceptable” and can be confusing or hurtful if teens’ own views differ from what they perceive others think.

Read More: 9 Ways to Reset Your Relationship With Social Media

The report also recommends that companies take more responsibility for the content posted on their sites, rather than putting all the responsibility on content creators. While there is an exemption that protects platform companies from the content that people post on their sites, “it’s time to revisit that exemption to see whether there is some responsibility to monitor content, especially if companies know adolescents will be there,” says Prinstein.

What policymakers can do

Addressing the exemption is one important action that policymakers can take. But being more proactive and considering things like specific teen accounts that would allow teens to access more appropriate content, rather than the entire internet, is another potentially beneficial strategy. Other countries, such as the U.K., already implement such an approach, says Prinstein. The U.K.’s Age Appropriate Design Code addresses ways to protect children’s privacy, including teen profiles that provide wider parental control. “The U.K. versions of these platforms look totally different for kids than they do for adults,” says Prinstein. “So we know platform companies can do it. But nothing similar has been passed in the U.S.”

Earlier this year, both the House and Senate passed versions of the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act that would impose a “duty of care” on platform companies for minors using them. That includes adding safeguards against cyberbullying and sexual exploitation, as well as setting safety defaults that limit autoplay and targeting features on minors' accounts. But disagreements over whether that duty of care would impinge on platform companies’ First Amendment freedom of speech rights means the House and Senate still need to reconcile some elements of the bill before it passes.

The latest science points to the importance of taking action, Prinstein says. “This is the first step to say that we know a whole lot about video content and kids’ development,” he says. “Let’s start following the science and start putting teens’ health first.”