In a lawsuit filed in late September, the state of Arkansas alleges that the video sharing website, YouTube, was contributing to the mental health crisis among young people. The accusations are nothing new, but critics still miss the point.
Everyone rightly worries that young people are struggling with mental health. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the problem, mental illness among young people was already rising. Today, teens are increasingly being treated for psychological disorders like depression and anxiety.
In its complaint, Arkansas raises concerns about YouTube’s business practices. The state alleges that YouTube is addictive by design: rewards systems, social media likes, and push notifications all maximize user engagement and ad revenue at the cost of addicting users—or at least that’s how the story is told. It is yet another example of policy makers blaming social media for the mental health crisis, just as they have done with Meta, Snapchat, and other social media companies.
The reality is that the research explaining the decline in mental health is mixed—although technology critics seldomly admit it. A comprehensive study summarizing the findings of many research papers found some studies showed only a weak correlation between heavy social media use and depression while others find no correlation at all.
More research is needed. While the overall effects are still uncertain, beneficial studies should help discern if certain age groups, genders, socioeconomic status, or any other relevant distinctions are more susceptible to the downsides of social media.
Rather than lumping all social media together, more studies on different platforms and different online features would help craft targeted legislation that is more tailored to the problem and more likely to succeed.
The cold hard truth is that research up to this point is not sufficient to craft appropriate policy. Instead of grappling with that reality, the state of Arkansas scapegoats social media for a multifaceted problem and seeks a one-size-fits-all solution to the complicated mental health picture.
Just like other social media platforms, the mental health impact of YouTube varies and largely depends on how it is used. While there is certainly content that may not be beneficial, there are also many educational channels designed to help children at different ages learn through video content creation. TED-Ed and National Geographics Kids are but two examples. Teachers themselves even use YouTube as classroom tool, assigning video creation essays and introducing new concepts in engaging ways.
In the end, how social media like YouTube is used is a bigger determining factor for mental health outcomes than the platform itself. And that is a decision best left to parents. Policymakers should be looking for more opportunities to make sure parents know that free tools already exist to help monitor and curate their children’s online activity. In the case of YouTube, the company offers a children-oriented version, YouTube Kids, to help shape the online experience.
Like many policy proposals and lawsuits before it, Arkansas paints too simple a picture of a complex problem. More research is needed. Acting quickly risks more harm than waiting until the problem is more thoroughly diagnosed. In the meantime, rather than scapegoating YouTube for societal problems, policymakers and state legal offices should focus time and energy empowering parents to make the best decisions for their children.
Trey Price is a policy analyst with the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit us at www.TheAmericanConsumer.Org or follow us on X @ConsumerPal.