Young brains are especially vulnerable to social media: experts

The effect of social media on developing brains is once again under the microscope after some of the largest social media companies were named in a lawsuit initiated by four major Ontario school boards.

One expert told CBC Toronto youth are particularly susceptible to social media's barrage of content, because their brains are still being developed.

"For young children and for teenagers, their brains really aren't wired to be able to process excessive rewards," said Emma Duerden, Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders in the Faculty of Education at Western University.

"We're not supposed to be receiving them all the time," Duerden said, adding that children don't have the same brain mechanics as adults for managing things like social media.

Duerden says the brain's prefrontal cortex, which is central to planning, decision making, evaluating future consequences and weighing risks and reward, isn't fully developed at the age of adolescence.

"They're not going to be able to put those brakes on," she said.

Duerden also said that both sleep and exercise, essential for healthy brain development, go down as screen time goes up.

The four school boards are alleging in multiple lawsuits that the social media giants have interfered with their ability to promote student well-being and are harming students' ability to learn.

The public district school boards of Toronto, Peel and Ottawa-Carleton, along with Toronto's Catholic counterpart, are seeking a combined $4.5 billion from Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc. and ByteDance Ltd., which operate the platforms Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok respectively.

The statements of claim say their social media products "were deliberately designed to manipulate the developing brain of students to promote excessive, compulsive and unsafe use of their products."

Richard Lachman, an associate professor at the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, says it's easier for youth to be lured into continuously scrolling social media platforms as they try to fit in with various social groups.

"We know that adolescence is a time with a lot of experimentation with identity," said Lachman, adding that adults are more secure with themselves and better equipped to process what they see online.

Lachman says there is not only definitive evidence of the harms associated with sustained social media use, but knowledge of that within the technology companies that designed those platforms.

"There have been report after report saying technology was designed with full knowledge that there were potential harms. In some cases students of psychology, social psychology, were designing in order to encourage addictive behaviour," said Lachman.