In December, the Australian government will bring the online safety amendment law vibrant. The law will prevent people under the age of 16 from the presence of accounts of a group of social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and YouTube. Legislation, which was presented in response to concerns about children’s safety and well -being1It provides a golden opportunity for researchers to investigate how social media use the mental health between adolescents-a complex issue was the subject of hot debate.
Social media ban-there are better ways to maintain children’s safety
There is little time for planning and preparing the perfect experience. Evaluating the state of mental health and using the Internet for tens of thousands of adolescents in Australia and comparing countries over time, before and after the legislation comes into effect, it is not a feat. It may require a great organization in schools, employment employees, agreement on research measures used, fast moral review and parental approval, which all take several months. However, there are more feasible curricula that can provide valuable information if researchers act immediately.
A consulting committee and a research partner have not been called unnamed, but as far as we know, there were no official announcements about responsibilities, leadership, or research strategies that he will be acquired. We urge the committee to consider the implementation of each of the following three methods.
Follow official records
Hospital admission records and physicist reports can follow self -harm and step between adolescents before and after the enforcement of legislation. The benefits of this approach are that it is possible to collect data for the entire country, instead of studying a sub -group of teenagers, and that many years of data retroactively are available. Data from other countries can also be used to help determine whether any changes in mental health in Australia can also be used to the embargo or whether it simply reflects wider directions.
On the negative side, it takes time until the official data is available. The numbers related to suicide are related to the long -time investigations, so the data sets are not completed for years. The data collected routinely does not reveal anything about individual mental health paths and the use of social media, which makes it difficult to determine whether social media contributed to the actions of peoples. These records also do not allow the investigation of many anxiety and depression that do not lead to self -harm or suicide. This is because these conditions are often treated or processed through primary health care services or private psychologists, from which data is not easily collected.
Launching national investigative studies
The government can conduct the health and luxury of the luxury of young people under the age of 16 before and after bringing the legislation. National polls have been made in Australia in the past, the latest in 2013-142. The start of one survey in the coming months and another within four years will enable comparisons with the previous soil.
These investigative studies usually include a representative sample of the population. To study the embargo of social media, they may instead in subtitles at risk-teenagers of sexual and sexual minorities (LGBTQIA+) or those who suffer from pre-existing mental health conditions, for example. Investigative studies can be used to explore risk factors for anxiety and depression, including online bullying, and detailed questions can be asked about the use and media of mental health and social media on various platforms, exceeding general measures such as screen time. Lifestyle measurements and any activities or hobbies that have been eaten to fill the time that have been spent in advance on social media. Analyzes help to answer questions about individuals protected by the prohibition of social media, and what activities online associated with improving welfare.
Young people may adopt different lifestyle interests when the embargo of social media in Australia begins-a trend that researchers can study.Credit: Sokhin/Panos
The defect of these investigative studies is that the proposed first cohort (which will be evaluated in the coming months) will have a different social media environment and different pressures from the second group, which will be evaluated within four years. This would make any complex and difficult comparisons. A four -year gap between investigative studies would make data rough in any paths of change – but the narrowing of this gap, for example, for example, is likely to be financially and politically.
List studies
Researchers can take advantage of continuous longitudinal studies for young people to employ new groups and follow them over time. These studies have a data feature retroactively. Australia has many of these studies that include mental health measures. For example, the study of future scrutiny began in 2019 and studied the emergence and path of mental health conditions in 6000 teenagers from the age of 13 onwards.3. It is scheduled to end this year, but it can be funded to include a new group that works from now until 2030.
How social media affects teenage mental health: a missing link
Trials that evaluate public health interventions can also be used, if time time includes social media prohibition (control groups of these experiments are basically longitudinal monitoring studies). One example is the experience4And, which is achieved in the effect of six lifestyle interventions on mental health from children between the ages of 11 and 13 in three Australian states. It can continue to follow -up reviews longer than the current limit of 36 months.
Reviewing current experiences and longitudinal studies, in Australia and in potential comparison countries such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States, should be a priority level for the Advisory Committee and researchers in the embargo. But the comparisons are likely to be complicated, due to the potential differences in the population composition sample, risk assessment, age in dust and results measurements. It may also be difficult to achieve safe and moral access to these dusts – teenagers and their parents may not agree to use their data outside the original investigation.