Mental health experts are raising concerns about the negative impact that social media is having on America’s children, CBN reports.

A recent study by CDC of American high school students found several concerns about mental health of American teens:

• 44% have felt a persistent sense of hopelessness for two-week stretches, and
• 10% of girls stated they were always sad.

Experts are putting the blame for this on the addictive nature of social media that studies have shown can damage a teen’s self-image and well-being as teens are often comparing themselves to others.

“Facebook knows that they are leading young users to anorexia,” former Facebook executive Frances Haugen said in her testimony to a Senate Committee. “When Facebook is asked questions directly as important as, ‘How do you impact the health and safety of our children?’ They choose to mislead and misdirect.”

According to Kelly Newcom, founder of Brave Parenting, one of the solutions to this problem is for parents to cut back on the amount of time, that children spend on social media.

A recent study has shown a significant improvement in the mental well-being of teens and young adults (76% were female) if they cut back the amount of time they spend on social media by half for just a few weeks.

The report published by the American Psychological Association noted;

“Teens and young adults who reduced their social media use by 50% for just a few weeks saw significant improvement in how they felt about both their weight and their overall appearance compared with peers who maintained consistent levels of social media use, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.”

READ: Cyber-Bullying, Doomscrolling, Loss of Christian Faith: How Social Media Is Harming Our Kids AND Reducing social media use significantly improves body image in teens, young adults