Meta, Twitter and other social media platforms currently allow 13-year-olds to join.
www.goodmorningamerica.com
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said he believes 13 is too young for children to be on social media platforms, despite some of the most popular platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, allowing users to be that age.
Murthy told CNN on Sunday that he believes being on social media "does a disservice" to kids early in their teen years.
"I, personally, based on the data I've seen, believe that 13 is too early," Murthy said on "CNN Newsroom." "It's a time where it's really important for us to be thoughtful about what's going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships and the skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children."
I have mixed feelings about this.
On one hand, I understand the concerns (like the ones pertaining to young people having unrealistic expectations and body image issues)...but many of those concerns would apply to the internet, in general , as well as several other various forms of entertainment like TV and Movies.
I understand the concerns about young people being exposed to certain ideas and misinformation that could skew some of their thinking, but again, that stuff is on TV and the regular old internet.
Cyber bullying is something that's a little more unique to social media, in that, while the web is full of sites that can spew conspiracy theories, and depict people who have unrealistic looks and bodies, you're not likely to go to a random website or or see a movie where a bunch of people start insulting you, personally, by name.
On the other hand, I think it's a good thing that more and more young people want to become politically engaged, and social media has become the primary vehicle for that. And it's a net positive when people have more ways to communicate with each other.
...and, I think Muthy's assessment is giving some mixed messages here given the administration he's working for. It wasn't too long ago when people were having conversations about advocating for allowing 16 year olds to vote or have an abortion without parental notification/consent. And we're currently having national-level conversations about whether or not to allow adolescents to make major life-altering medical decisions.
If a 15-16 year old is old enough to vote and obtain medical procedures without parental consent, and people are talking about trusting their judgment with regards to certain forms of gender affirmation care, it's kind of tough to sell the idea of "but, yeah, we don't think you're old enough for an instagram account"