To combat alarming trends in youth mental health, state legislation has been introduced by the New York State Senate and Assembly promoting awareness of social media’s effects on mental health. 

Assembly bill A4136, also known as Senate bill S7662, would introduce a statewide youth mental health campaign to provide information and increase awareness on the dangers of social media. The campaign would push for a course of study to be implemented in middle and high schools. 

The curriculum would educate students about the positives and negatives of social media while also preparing them with tools for when social media may begin to affect their mental health.

A 2019 study from Johns Hopkins University found a direct correlation between the time teens spend on social media and the reporting of mental health struggles. This is alarming as a 2023 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows that 95% of teens have open access to a smartphone, and nearly a third of those teens reported they were online consistently. Along with this, the report found that nearly 40% of kids aged 8 through 12 use social media.

“We need to let young people and their parents and the public know so that they can sort of respond accordingly and try to get the tools that they need to address the challenges that come with using these devices, these platforms,” Monica Wallace, New York State Assemblymember and sponsor of the bill, said. “This exponential rise in children’s mental health issues or teen mental health issues has coincided worldwide with the proliferation of social media amongst society.”

The bill asks the Commissioner of Education and the Commissioner of Health of Public Health in New York State to converge with the Commissioner of Mental Health and the Director of Office for Information Technology Services to create a statewide social media campaign. 

“[The bill is] requiring these three experts to get together and come up with a campaign to raise awareness,” Wallace said. “[They] then provide a report for us to look at, which should include the negative impacts of social media on mental health, the research and statistics regarding youth mental health and social media use techniques to reduce feelings of isolation and anxiety and increase their sleep quality.”

According to the 2023 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a study done on 14-year-olds found that greater social media use led to poor sleep, online harassment, poor body image, low self-esteem and higher depression rates. 

In the same study, parents reported on their concerns of social media affecting their child. Fifty-three percent said social media contributed to depression, 54% said it led to bullying and low self-esteem, 59% believed it made their child feel they should act a certain way and 71% said social media exposed their child to explicit content. 

“After COVID, [students are] very used to being able to sit behind a keyboard and have that comfort zone and then kind of let an extension of who they are out online,” Dylan Vitale, a school counselor at Oswego High School, said. “And I think that it makes them say and do things that they necessarily wouldn’t say in person.”

Bullying has also been made worse with the use of social media. Snapchat is seen as a media platform with innate toxic features. Students have reported bullying by means of a feature in Snapchat which allows users to add others to group-chats without the consent of the receiving party.

Students at Oswego High School have also reported bullying incidents of students being photographed and posted on social media. 

The idea that social media tailors itself towards the youth and takes advantage of them is also felt by the legislators behind the bill. 

“[Social media companies] have specifically tailored their algorithms to try to keep you on as long as possible,” Wallace said. “So they are just like the makers of tobacco and vaping devices are specifically trying to get young people addicted or people addicted with nicotine.”

To suppress the use of social media in Oswego High School, administrators have tried to limit the WiFi access of students by having a staff-only WiFi network, but the password would always get to the students. The school holds many presentations to enhance mindfulness of this issue as their restrictions of students only reach within the confinements of the school. 

Anti-bullying presentations and discussions about the digital footprint have been implemented. Additionally, on Nov. 8, Rachel’s Challenge, a nonprofit organization with the aim of ending violence, came to the school and did a presentation on kindness and the effects of bullying.

“[Students are] not always aware of what they’re doing online and how it affects people,” Vitale said. “There’s sort of that anonymous aspect to being online that makes people a little bit more audacious, which is dangerous… having the audacity to say some things that they would never say in person.”

Among educators and legislators, there is an unmet need for school curriculum targeting the effects of social media. 

“We definitely still have a long way to go in terms of trying to change the minds of students,” Vitale said. “I would love to see something like that, some sort of socioemotional learning be part of the curriculum. I would definitely be all for that, for sure.”

The bill is currently in committees in both the Senate and the Assembly. The bill was first introduced to the Assembly and is sponsored by Wallace. In the Senate, it is sponsored by Senator John W. Mannion. There has been no movement on the bill so far, as it has yet to move through different committees in both houses. 

“There’s thousands of bills waiting to be heard on the floor,” Lila Balali, legislative director of Assembly Member Wallace, said. “So it is unfortunately a really slow process to pass a bill. But there’s no movement.”

While there has been no movement, having both a senator and an assembly member sponsor the bill shows that there is some level of interest in both houses, and increases the likelihood of progress.  

“There’s a lot of support for this, and there’s academic research supporting it that this is something we should raise awareness of,” Wallace said. “We should give kids and adults the tools that they need to recognize and engage in more healthy behavior.”