Social media addiction increases risky behavior in teens: study

By Isobel Williams via SWNS

Frequent use of social media increases dangerous risk-taking behavior in children, warns a new study.

Researchers found that social media use is associated with risky health behaviors in young people including increased alcohol, drug and tobacco use, anti-social behavior, risky sex and gambling.

Exposure to risky content on social media such as alcohol advertising had the strongest evidence of harm, particularly in relation to alcohol use and unhealthy eating.

The researchers found that spending at least two hours a day on social media doubled the odds of alcohol consumption compared with less than two hours of use.

To get their results the team, from the University of Glasgow, studied 1.4 million adolescents (10–19-year-olds) from 1997 to 2022.

The study, published in the BMJ, showed that frequent or daily social media use was associated with higher odds of alcohol consumption by 48 percent.

Social media use was also associated with a 28 percent increase in drug use and 85 percent increase in tobacco use compared with infrequent or non-daily use.

Frequent or daily social media use was also associated with a 77 percent increase in risky sexual behaviors such as sexting, transactional sex, and inconsistent condom use as well as a 73 percent increase in anti-social behavior such as bullying, physical assault, and aggressive/delinquent behavior.

It also led to almost three times the odds of gambling compared with infrequent or non-daily use of social media.

Dr. Amrit Kaur Purba said: “Experimental and risk-taking behaviors are an inherent part of adolescence.

“However, as safeguards for a digital world are still evolving, precaution across academic, governmental, health and educational sectors may be warranted before the risks of adolescents’ use of social media is fully understood.”