Raffy Zamora backs social media ban: Save youngsters’ psychological well being

“It’s about giving them again their childhood.” This was the message parenting advocate and LegenDaddy founder Raffy Zamora hammered on in his newest episode on Peanut Gallery Media Community’s YouTube channel, the place he strongly endorsed current bans on social media for kids beneath 16 in Australia and a number of other U.S. states. Zamora argued that social media is damaging younger minds, fueling a psychological well being disaster, and depriving kids of real-world experiences.

“The query now is just not whether or not social media is hurting them—we already know it’s,” Zamora acknowledged.

Citing social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, Zamora highlighted how the widespread use of smartphones and social media from 2010 to 2012 coincided with a pointy rise in anxiousness, melancholy, and self-harm amongst youngsters, significantly ladies. “Psychological well being points began climbing—anxiousness, melancholy, and even self-harm—particularly for teenage ladies,” he mentioned, explaining that Haidt blames not the children, however the platforms themselves for exploiting insecurities and reinforcing social comparability.

“As an alternative of constructing confidence, it makes them really feel smaller,” Zamora warned. “As an alternative of connecting them to pals, it traps them compared—scrolling by unattainable magnificence requirements, airbrushed lives, and influencers who all the time appear to have it collectively.” Haidt’s analysis presents a disturbing development: social comparability has risen by 75 p.c, dopamine dependency by 80 p.c, and psychological well being points by 60 p.c. In accordance with Zamora, social media is intentionally designed to maintain customers addicted. “Teenage brains simply aren’t prepared for these things,” he mentioned. “It’s not simply messing with their psychological well being; it’s truly rewiring how their brains work. That’s an enormous deal.”

Past psychological well being issues, Zamora additionally pointed to the risks of ‘social contagion’, a time period utilized by creator Abigail Shrier to explain how dangerous on-line traits quickly affect susceptible teenagers, significantly ladies. “Shrier calls this ‘social contagion’—when concepts unfold like wildfire in on-line communities. Probably the most susceptible youngsters get swept up in these traits, and social media amplifies all of it,” he mentioned. Statistics present that influencer-driven traits have an effect on 75 p.c of teenage ladies, real-world experiences have declined by 60 p.c, and social contagion is influencing 85 p.c of younger feminine customers.

Article continues after this commercial

Some argue that kids ought to merely be taught accountable social media use, however Zamora dismissed this as wishful considering. “Would we hand our 12-year-old a pack of cigarettes and belief them to ‘smoke responsibly’? Would we go away a bottle of whiskey on the kitchen counter round our teenager and hope they make the best alternative? In fact not. Their brains aren’t prepared for that. Social media isn’t any completely different. In actual fact, it’s worse as a result of the harm is tougher to see—it’s psychological, and it’s sneaky.”

Article continues after this commercial

To counteract these dangers, Zamora backed Haidt’s four-step plan to guard kids: Delay smartphone entry till highschool, ban social media for youths beneath 16, implement phone-free faculties, and create screen-free zones at house. For teenage ladies, Shrier recommends further measures corresponding to encouraging offline hobbies, fostering mentorship from trusted adults, and implementing family-wide social media breaks.

Zamora harassed that these options aren’t about punishment however about defending kids’s well-being. “This regulation is just not about punishing youngsters or taking one thing away from them. It’s about giving them one thing again,” he mentioned. “It’s about giving them again their childhood. Their psychological well being. Their probability to determine who they’re in the actual world, surrounded by actual individuals.”