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The 鈥渄angers鈥� of social media lend themselves to alarmist headlines, especially when there are high-profile cases of abuse or violence with a social media component. That鈥檚 why many commentators, advocates, and Congress members are simply blaming teens for their increased stresses and advancing proposals to from social media like Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.

Like many policy efforts when it comes to youth, this misses the mark and ignores the real crises afflicting teenagers.

The real crises the most troubled teens face involve their 辫补谤别苍迟蝉鈥� rising addiction, suicidal and addictive behaviors, and violent and emotional abuses. Bans on teens鈥� online access are dangerous, since indicate the most distressed fraction of youths use social media to connect to others and find 鈥減eople who can support them during tough times.鈥�

Unfortunately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention鈥檚 (CDC) just-released 鈥�,鈥� generating alarmist headlines like 鈥�,鈥� invites exactly the kind of distractions and scapegoating being pushed with ill-advised bans.

The latest report finds a bizarre contradiction. On one hand, teens themselves are generally improving their behaviors with respect to drugs and alcohol, school violence, and sexual responsibility鈥攆indings similar to those of the FBI, CDC, and Census Bureau that actual crime, unwanted pregnancies, and school dropouts by youths are plummeting. Only 15% to 16% report bullying (even under a very broad definition) at school or online鈥攖he two venues with which commentators and leaders seem obsessed.

Decades of research show that troubled teenagers are the product of abusive, troubled adult families.

On the other hand, the new CDC report finds dangers and violence toward teens inflicted by others is increasing dramatically. For example, 18% of girls report being sexually victimized. But, as in other areas of endangerment, the CDC fails to explore who is perpetrating the violence. If, as the , rape and sexual assault by teens have plunged to all-time lows, who is sexually victimizing young women?

The latest CDC report similarly finds LGBTQ+ youth, and youth who have otherwise had same-sex sexual contact, reporting alarming levels of forced sex and violence. It then fails again to ask about the perpetrators. Are they partners? Peers? Adults? ? Instead, the CDC seems to invite speculation as to who to blame.

The previous survey, released by the CDC in March 2022, , although it did pose more questions than the most recent report. It found 11% of high school respondents reporting violent abuses and a shocking 55% reporting psychological abuses by parents and household adults. A 2013鈥�2014 using slightly different measures and age groups showed sharp increases over teens鈥� reports of violent and emotional abuses by parents and caregivers.

The CDC鈥檚 2022 report cited violent abuses by parents that included hitting, beating, kicking, and otherwise physically hurting their children, while emotional abuses included insulting, swearing, and name-calling. The CDC did not ask about sexual abuse by parents and grownups鈥攚hich was in keeping with major commentators, like The Atlantic鈥檚 and The New Yorker鈥檚 , whose reports have dodged abuse issues altogether to blame teen problems on social media.

The CDC鈥檚 2022 report found 3 to 4 times more teens reporting parental abuses (55%) than its 2023 report found for school (15%) or cyber (16%) bullying, even though the agency鈥檚  is narrower than for . They are 4 times more likely to be violently abused by household adults and 3 to 5 times more likely to have attempted suicide than non-LGBTQ+ youth.

Decades of research show that troubled teenagers are the product of abusive, troubled adult families. and abuses inflicted by household adults are firmly linked to their children鈥檚 , closely tracking the increase in teens who  (26% in 2013; 44% in 2021).

Crises among America鈥檚 grown-ups are severe. Among parent-aged adults over the past three decades, per-capita rates of suicides and drug and alcohol overdose have more than tripled, reaching record peaks in 2020鈥�2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adult depression recently also tripled, a 2020 study found.

Compared with 15-year-olds, today鈥檚 45-year-olds are 1.5 times more likely to die by gunfire, 1.5 times more likely to be criminally arrested, 3 times more likely to commit suicide, 4.5 times more likely to die from all violent causes, 25 times more likely to fatally overdose on illicit drugs (including 23 times more for fentanyl), and over 100 times more likely to die from binge drinking, the and report. Higher death rates are only the tip of the iceberg pointing to a much larger number of family problems.

This is not a 鈥渢eenage mental health crisis.鈥� It is a troubled-adult crisis compounded by the obliviousness of derelict leaders and interests who have failed to address America鈥檚 burgeoning epidemics. We should be shocked if teens 飞别谤别苍鈥檛 more anxious and depressed.

Abuses cause real-life injuries and deaths. The latest 鈥溾�� report, covering 2020, by the Children鈥檚 Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, tabulated about 160,000 child and youth victims of physical and sexual abuses and nearly 40,000 victimized by severe psychological abuses inflicted by parents and other household adults in substantiated cases that represent only a fraction of what actually occurs. project that nearly 500 homicide victims ages 12鈥�17 were killed by people ages 25 and older in 2020鈥攁 dozen times more than were killed in school shootings.

Missing (and Misrepresenting) the Point

Nearly all press reports seem to avoid admitting the disturbing realities that teens cannot evade.

A typical example is the scary-sounding but meaningless statistic that 鈥渟uicide is the third leading cause of death among teens.鈥� That鈥檚 not because suicide is particularly rampant among teenagers, but because teens rarely die from natural causes. For example, in 2021 and 2022, the to date records 4,184 suicides and 2,705 deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancer for ages 12鈥�19; and 8,661 suicides and 73,257 deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancer among ages 42鈥�49. Deaths can be lamented without completely misrepresenting teens as uniquely self-imperiled.

Unfortunately, legislators and other leaders have proven unable and unwilling to design effective responses to the United States鈥� epidemics of drug and alcohol , gun violence, suicide, and related self-destructive behaviors that together in the U.S. in 2020-2021. Yet, many of those same commentators and leaders eagerly blame social media and teens.

Should we also ban youths from associating with their parents, going to , joining organizations like the , , and going to , all of which have histories of large-scale abuses of children and youths and institutional cover-ups?

Studies that examine social media impacts in a nuanced fashion have found the large majority of teens benefit. Only 9% told a 2022 that social media negatively affects them personally. (Interestingly, 32% thought it negatively impacted other teens.) Pew found 鈥�80% said social media gives them some level of connection to what is going on in their friends鈥� lives, 71% said it鈥檚 a place where they can show their creativity, 67% said social media reassures them that they have people to support them, and 58% said it makes them feel more accepted.鈥� (One unspoken motivation for Republicans to back restrictions might be that, according to Pew, youth identifying with the Democratic Party or politics are both more numerous and more likely than Republican youth to communicate and organize.)

In contrast, few teens among both those who find social media positive and negative , like pressure to conform, feeling excluded, feeling worse about their lives, or being 鈥渙verwhelmed by all the drama.鈥� Both teen groups said their online experiences are better than parents think.

Surveys question youths on problems chosen by surveyors. When surveys ask , they cite worries over , not social media.

Leave Those Kids Alone

Congress has a dismal record of imposing effective age limits on what it deems dangerous behavior. Long-term research using improved techniques found that raising the nation鈥檚 , initially celebrated for 鈥渟aving lives鈥� (albeit at the cost of hundreds of thousands of annual teenaged arrests), actually just 鈥溾�� into young adulthood by disrupting the vitally important gaining of 鈥溾�� with alcohol. Likewise, imposing was associated more with than with reducing them among younger teens

Alarmism hurled at every younger generation for has proven useless. Within a couple of years, the alarmists are back to proclaim new youthful crises worse than ever.

of the early 1900s trumpeted the 鈥溾�� in 鈥渃hild suicide鈥� they blamed on popular media (鈥渃heap theaters, pessimistic literature, sensational stories鈥�). The American Youth Commission鈥檚 found 75% of young men were suffering debilitating mental troubles. Science News Letter reported in 1937 that kids 鈥渁s young as six to thirteen鈥� were being treated for suicidal thinking. (Pundits now call those kids the 鈥淕reatest Generation鈥�).

Surveys found mental health professionals of the 1980s estimating the average teenager was more mentally disturbed than psychiatric patients. In the 1980s, the psychiatric industry profitably hyped the 鈥溾�� to fill empty beds in overbuilt hospitals. In the 1980s, the Parents Music Resource Center, led by Tipper Gore, blamed rock music for teenagers鈥� woes. A declared suicide had 鈥渟oared鈥� among young adolescents. In 1998, blamed television for children being 鈥渢he most damaged and disturbed generation this country has ever produced.鈥� In the early 2000s, college and university counselors proclaimed a 鈥溾�� and won tuition increases to fund more staff. Apparently, it didn鈥檛 do any good. Counselors are back again, demanding more money because 鈥�.鈥�

What we should be studying is how teenagers, supposedly impulse-driven, , 鈥�,鈥� should be so unlikely to act self-destructively compared with supposedly stable, mature grownups. They don鈥檛 need authorities stepping in once again with more misdirected alarmism and destructive bans that trivialize the real-life problems they face.