Debate: Should academics collaborate with digital companies to improve young people's mental health?

Social media platforms generate billions of dollars in revenue from U.S. youth: Findings from a simulated revenue model

Social media platforms are suspected to derive hefty profits from youth users who may be vulnerable to negative mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Platforms, however, are not required to make these data publicly available, which may limit the abilities of researchers and policymakers to adequately investigate and regulate platform practices. This study aimed to estimate the number of U.S.-based child (0-12 years old) and adolescent (13-17 years old) users and the annual advertising revenue generated from youth across six major platforms. Data were drawn from public survey and market research sources conducted in 2021 and 2022. A simulation analysis was conducted to derive estimates of the number of users and the annual advertising revenue per age group and overall (ages 0-17 years) for 2022. The findings reveal that, across six major social media platforms, the 2022 annual advertising revenue from youth users ages 0-17 years is nearly $11 billion. Approximately 30-40% of the advertising revenue generated from three social media platforms is attributable to young people. Our findings highlight the need for greater transparency from social media platforms as well as regulation of potentially harmful advertising practices that may exploit vulnerable child and adolescent social media users.

Debate: Response to "Should academics collaborate with digital companies to improve young people's mental health"

Much of the debate about academic collaboration with digital companies (see Livingstone, Orben & Odgers, 2022) has surrounded commercial use of data and children's mental health. The debate has also spilled into the educational value of technologies and academic collaboration with companies to improve their learning design. Given the close relationship between learning and mental health, the evaluation of digital companies' impact should focus on both their emotional and educational effects. The collaborative models used by educational researchers provide a source of inspiration for transparent evaluations and evidence-based recommendations for holistic interventions that target children's learning and mental health.

Debate: Academics should collaborate with the technology industry, but not in lieu of noncollaborative research

Academic research collaborations with the technology industry should be complementary to and, importantly, must not replace noncollaborative research that is independent from the industry (and, in particular, 'adversarial research' whose negative findings will likely operate against industry interests). Reflecting on the author's own research projects concerning companies' compliance with video game loot box regulation, he agrees with Livingstone et al.'s proposition (Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 2022, 28, 150) that research seeking to identify problems (and thereby work against the industry's interests) should be conducted independently (p. 151), at least initially. He also echoes the sentiment expressed by Zendle and Wardle (Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 2022, 28, 155) that 'a moratorium' (p. 156) or a ban on industry collaborations is not a proportional response to legitimate concerns about conflict of interest stemming from the video game industry's discretionary provision of data access. A combined approach that conducts both noncollaborative and collaborative research, but with the latter being conducted only after the former's unbiased results are known, might prove fruitful. Academics must bear in mind that industry involvement at any particular stage of the research, or at all, is not always appropriate. Some research questions should not and cannot be answered objectively with industry involvement. Funding bodies and other stakeholders should also recognise this and not render industry collaboration compulsory.

Editorial: Control alt delete - technology and children's mental health

With international contributions from Denmark, Peru, Italy, Turkey, Estonia, Russia, Canada, the USA, Australia and the UK, this special issue offers insights and evidence about the technology's ability to act as a force of good and a source of harm for young people's mental health. As we better understand the complex and bidirectional relationship between technology and mental health, we need to move beyond dichotomous narratives about it being good or bad; it is both, depending on how it is used. Collective responsibility across technology companies, researchers, public services and community organisations, parents and the young people themselves can make a difference in the way technology is used to protect and improve mental health.