Social media and its impact on adolescent health and wellbeing: a scoping study of the new ethical challenges

This scoping study focuses on the impact of social media on adolescents’ health-related knowledge and behaviours. Currently, there is limited evidence-based guidance addressing the significant risks and ethical concerns posed by adolescents’ use of social media to inform their understandings of health and wellbeing. Evidence suggests that the prevalence of youth body-image concerns can be exacerbated by access to unsolicited and unmediated health-related information. 

This study aims to: identify what health-related information is accessed from social media and how it influences adolescents’ health and wellbeing; establish a network of researchers, policy makers, schools, teachers and parents to develop a collaborative research agenda focussed on social media and the health and youth wellbeing; construct evidence-based actions and guidance to mitigate against risks or harms posed by adolescents’ uses of social media in the context of their health and wellbeing.