Author: Danielle Einstein, Adjunct Fellow, School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University

The Australian government is developing legislation that will ban children under 16 from social media. There has been a huge public debate about whether there is sufficient direct evidence of harm to introduce this regulation. The players in this debate include academics, mental health organisations, advocacy groups and digital education providers. Few step back to look at the entire research landscape. Social media has become integral to everyday life. Not many teens want to be extensively researched, so studies are pragmatic, require consent and findings are limited. As a result, we tend to hear that the effects are small or…