Liked, Shared, Depressed: New Report Reveals Alarming Link Between Social Media And Teen Mental Health
The mental health of young Canadians has declined dramatically as social media usage became ubiquitous…
Depression has doubled. Anxiety has quadrupled. Emergency room visits for self-harm among teenage girls have surged 138 per cent. The culprit? Smartphones and social media.
A new report from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute by policy analyst Jonah Davids reveals the devastating consequences of widespread social media use on Canadian youth mental health and offers urgent solutions to address this growing crisis.
Wired for Worry: How Smartphones and Social Media are Harming Canadian Youth shows that the mental health of young Canadians has declined dramatically as social media usage became ubiquitous.
“Mental health declines across provinces, countries, and continents point towards a transnational cause, and social media usage fits the bill as one of the few widely adopted technologies over this period that has fundamentally changed how humans relate to one another,” writes Davids.
The report details disturbing provincial trends, including how “In Ontario, the number of teens aged 13 to 17 visiting the emergency room for self-harm increased by 138 per cent for girls and 75 per cent for boys between 2010 and 2017.”
The report offers six concrete policy recommendations, including raising the minimum age for social media to 16, noting that “regulating the content teens encounter is likely to have less of an impact than outright prohibiting them from using social media.”
“The goal is to restore the kind of childhood most adults remember, where social connections were built in-person and social media played a minor role,” states Davids.
The report comes as four Ontario school boards have launched multi-million-dollar lawsuits against social media companies for harming student mental health, and as provinces implement various cell phone restrictions in schools.
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Agencies Take Action on Appraisal Requirements in an Area Affected by California Wildfires and Straight-line Winds
To help facilitate recovery efforts from wildfires and straight-line wind damage in Los Angeles County, California this year, four federal financial institution regulatory agencies today temporarily paused certain appraisal requirements for real estate-related transactions.
This action is expected to allow banks and credit unions to work with families and businesses without obtaining an appraisal. Banks and credit unions will still be required to determine that the value of the real estate supports the institution’s decision to enter into the transaction.
As a result of this action, financial institutions will be better able to lend or modify loans in areas where wildfire and straight-line wind damage has made appraisals challenging to obtain. This action is also expected to reduce loan processing times, helping to facilitate recovery from the disaster.
This action will expire on January 8, 2028. The agencies will monitor institutions’ real estate lending practices to ensure the transactions are being conducted in a safe and sound manne.
