Cara Usher-Smith

Social media is worse than smoking for teenagers

The problem with TikTok, Instagram and teenage girls

  • From Spectator Life
(iStock)

Would you knowingly give your daughter a birthday present that was going to increase her chances of self-harming, developing anxiety and even depression? I assume the answer would be no, yet this is what so many parents do to their children when they give them a smartphone with access to social media.

You could not design anything more pernicious for socially insecure teenagers

As a mother of two daughters who are now teenagers, I know the pressure to do so feels enormous.

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