• IMO calls for smartphone and social media usage to be treated as a public health emergency
   
• ‘Our young people are exposed to a toxic mix of both extraordinarily harmful content and social media platforms that use features such as infinite scroll to promote more user activity, creating a vicious circle of use’

 

Tuesday August 27, 2024.  The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has said that it is critically important that the Government follow through on plans to ban smartphone usage among children and adolescents, warning that the devices, and the social media content accessible on them, are “overwhelmingly destructive”.

 

The IMO welcomed calls by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly last weekend to ban smartphone use for under16s, and Minister for Education Norma Foley’s recent proposal to ban smartphones in all primary and secondary schools.

 

Speaking today, Professor Matthew Sadlier, Chair of the Consultants’ Committee of the IMO, said: “We need to treat smartphone and social media use as a public health emergency. The IMO has long highlighted its dangers, and as such we welcome these calls by both the Minister for Health and Minister for Education.

 

“Research shows the overwhelmingly destructive effect that smartphone usage has on children and adolescents in particular, and as a society it is imperative that we urgently address a crisis that has dire ramifications on their mental and physical health.”

 

At its AGM last April, the IMO carried several motions calling for curbs on smartphone and social media usage. Among the motions passed was a call for the Government, in light of a bi-partisan case taken by 42 US Attorneys General against Meta for its product’s detrimental effect upon youth mental health, to urgently investigate the allegations and publish opinion on whether a similar case should be taken in Ireland.

 

Professor Sadlier said that every indicator of mental health and psychological wellbeing among teenagers and young adults has become more negative since 2012, when social media use became used widely. He added that it was not too late to impose this ban, referencing the country’s success in greatly reducing tobacco use after a major public health campaign.

 

“It is time to get serious with smartphone makers and social media companies; for 15 years our young people have been exposed to a toxic mix of both extraordinarily harmful content and social media platforms that use features such as infinite scroll to promote more user activity, creating a vicious circle of use which ultimately leads to higher levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness and suicidal tendencies.”  

 

He added that State support was important to help parents impose this ban on smartphones. “It is not enough to ask parents to shoulder this responsibility alone; the Government can and must intervene in order to level the playing field for all young people.”