hile becoming inextricable to our daily lives, online social media are blamed for increasing mental health problems in younger people. This systematic review synthesised evidence on the influence of social media use on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. A search of PsycINFO, Medline, Embase, CINAHL and SSCI databases reaped 13 eligible studies, of which 12 were cross-sectional. Findings were classified into four domains of social media: time spent, activity, investment and addiction. All domains correlated with depression, anxiety and psychological distress. However, there are considerable caveats due to methodological limitations of cross-sectional design, sampling and measures. Mechanisms of the putative effects of social media on mental health should be explored further through qualitative enquiry and longitudinal cohort studies.
A Los Angeles jury has handed down an unprecedented win for a young woman who sued Meta and YouTube over her childhood addiction to social media. Jurors found that Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and Google, owner of YouTube, intentionally built addictive social media platforms that harmed the 20-year old's mental health.
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Hundreds of millions of dollars of grants go to community groups every year from gambling, including pokies, Lotto and casinos – but legal online casinos wouldn’t have to, under new government plans. Steve Kilgallon reports.
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The suffering of people who are addicted to gaming and social media, the struggle of their families, and the need for screening, prevention, early intervention and treatment are highlighted in this interview with Dr Daniela Vecchio on Reuters.
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