ArticleChild and adolescent mental health2025
Debate: Social media in children and young people - time for a ban? Beyond the ban - empowering parents and schools to keep adolescents safe on social media.
Article in Child and adolescent mental health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Young minds in distress: Exploring the global rise in youth mental health diagnoses.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Experiences of Social Media Platforms' Policies and Restrictions Related to Self-Harm Content: Mixed Methods Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Predictors of Weekday and Weekend Screen Time in a Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Sample (Aged 12-18 Years).Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Climate change and social health.Nature human behaviour · 2026Review
- Digital paternalism and adolescent autonomy: ethical reflections on Australia's under-16 social media ban.BMC medical ethics · 2026Article
- Beyond the debate: toward pragmatic evaluation of Australia's social media age restrictions.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In this article, we examine Australia's landmark decision to ban social media access for children under the age of 16, set to take effect in December 2025. While the legislation aims to protect young people from the harms of social media, including its impact on mental health and wellbeing, the evidence base underpinning the ban remains inconclusive, with most studies unable to establish causality. Drawing on parallels with adolescent alcohol prevention, we argue that prohibition alone is unlikely to be effective. Instead, we advocate for a harm minimisation approach that equips young people with digital literacy, resilience, and help-seeking skills. We highlight the essential roles of parents, schools, and adolescents in fostering safer social media use and call for inclusive, co-designed education initiatives.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.