Experts warn social media is creating 'broken people'
CyberSafeKids board of directors member Clare Daly said their research shows children as young as six in Ireland have smart devices and use them unsupervised. File picture
Social media use is “creating broken people” and it should be considered a public health risk, according to a stark warning from experts in psychiatry and the online sphere.
Psychiatrist Matthew Sadlier said: “What we are seeing is increased numbers of self-harm (patients), what we are seeing is younger people attending, what we are seeing is just an absolute crisis.”
A discussion on “the dark side of social media” at the Irish Medical Organisation’s annual general meeting (AGM) heard it should be considered a public health risk.
Chairman of the Irish Medical Organisation consultant committee, Prof Sadlier said young people are presenting in distress although they do not have recognised psychiatric conditions.
While patients do not say they feel hurt by social media, he said: “That is the point, I think it has an ability to change people’s moods, emotions, how they react to their environment in a way that it then leads to this explosion of distress.
“It is creating broken people.”
Parents are often unaware children as young as eight can view pornography if they have a smartphone, speakers said.
CyberSafeKids board of directors member Clare Daly said their research shows children as young as six in Ireland have smartphones and use them unsupervised.
This is leading to bullying, she said.
CyberSafeKids have supported families trying to have dangerous posts taken down. “It is very hard to get that taken down,” she said.
Parents can report posts to companies such as TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram but she said that does not always help.
“In some cases it has been two weeks before the post has been taken down. That is an incredibly long time for a young child to be in distress,” she said in her experience.
Professor of digital media and gender at Dublin City University Professor Debbie Gin also took part in the AGM.
Her research shows “really violent male supremacism and misogyny” which had been confined to limited areas of the internet is now spreading through social media.
“(A lot of parents) are simply not aware of what is out there,” she said.
“They may see those headlines, you know the average age of access to porn is somewhere between eight and 11, and they are thinking ‘that must be in England, that’s not happening here’."
She warned however: “If your kid has a smartphone, they have seen porn. It’s 100%, it’s black and white.”
She said young people are now using language previously only used by groups such as incels. These are straight men who blame women for their lack of success in relationships and are hostile towards women.
“That is the most alarming thing, that it is becoming so mainstream,” she said.
She stressed she is not anti-digital, but said: “The problem is the models of ownership and the way the architecture is built: for profit and advertising driven, algorithm-driven model of our current platforms."
The IMO passed motions which called on:
- The Department of Health to urgently develop a well-funded public health strategy modelled on successful 'tobacco free' policies to combat social media addiction, use and harm.
- The Department Education to ban smartphone use in primary schools from the start of next year.
- The Attorney General and Department of Justice to urgently investigate allegations and publish opinion on whether a case should be taken in Ireland against Meta "for their product's detrimental effect on youth mental health".
