2023-10-25 08:08:11
Michel Desmurget, doctor in neuroscience, warns of “a real public health problem for our children and adolescents”. Social media has “mental health effects that are linked to depression, anxiety and sleep.”
“It would be good for Europe and France to also address the problem because it is a real public health problem for our children and adolescents,” alerted Wednesday October 25 on franceinfo Michel Desmurget, doctor in neuroscience and director of research at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). Forty American states have filed a complaint once morest the Meta group, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which they accuse of harming the health of children and adolescents.
Social networks have “mental health effects that are linked to depression, anxiety and sleep”, in particular, explains the researcher. “What is a little worrying is that we had to wait so long for the lobbyist wave to pass”he denounced while “It has been clear for several years that the effects on the mental, physical and intellectual health of our children are considerable and obviously deleterious.”
franceinfo: Are you surprised by this complaint?
Michel Desmurget : No. We knew it was going to come out. This is a bit, as one of the prosecutors explains, what happened with tobacco. The data became so obvious, so consistent that, inevitably, at some point, the legislator was going to have to look into the question. The only thing that can be striking is the harshness of the terms used. Meta is accused, on the basis of company documents, of having falsified its reports, for the sole purpose of increasing its profits and of having neglected the considerable damage that this might cause to the mental and physical health of children. and adolescents.
What are the effects on children?
These are mental health effects that are linked to depression, anxiety, sleep. There are effects, obviously, which are extremely strong on academic success, on addiction with a major disruption, as a recent study shows, of the reward system which makes our children particularly susceptible to addiction and above all which makes them extremely hypersensitive to the opinions of others and to everything that may be thought of them. There are also obviously effects on health via a sedentary lifestyle. These are effects that are very well known in the literature and were recently highlighted once more by the head of the American health service. These are not people who, in terms of terms, are super courageous. And yet, the head of the American health system, in particular, published a vitriolic report explaining that there was considerable damage.
“It has been clear for several years that the effects on the mental, physical and intellectual health of our children are considerable and obviously deleterious.”
Michel Desmurget, doctor in neuroscience and research director at Inserm
at franceinfo
What is a little worrying is that we had to wait so long for the lobbyist wave to pass. It’s been at least five to ten years since the data started accumulating.
Is this a scandal comparable to that of the tobacco industry?
It’s always the same logic in all major public health problems. We start by denying the problem and ridiculing the people who bring it to the forefront. We are starting to say that there is not much. And we start to say that there is something, but it doesn’t matter. Then, we are told regarding individual freedom. And then, at some point, the legislator gets involved. It all started with a Meta engineer who left the company taking with her a certain number of documents clearly proving that Facebook, Meta in this case, is perfectly aware of the pain, of the deleterious nature of what ‘they put in place. What we can hope is that this trial, as was the case for the tobacco industry, forces Meta, and others elsewhere, to put their confidential report on the table.
Should France and Europe follow in the footsteps of the American states?
There is a law that recently passed the European Parliament, which is undoubtedly not sufficient. Yes, we will have to act at some point. The legislator will have to take up the problem, which many countries are now doing. Asian countries, China, Taiwan have legislated. The United States will go through the legal system. It would be good for Europe and France to also address the problem because it is a real public health problem for our children and our teenagers.
Are the risks also great for adults?
There is a major difference between adults and children, which is that the child’s brain is under construction. He is much more vulnerable. There is content that has much deeper and more significant effects on a teenager, who still has his brain developing, than on an adult, who has a brain that is much more structured. If you pass a storm on a house that is already built, it will have much less impact than on a house that still has its scaffolding. Teenagers and children are particularly vulnerable targets. But that does not mean that there are no effects, obviously also on adults.
What message do you want to send to children?
For parents, it’s hard because they have suffered such a wave of lobbying for years to explain to them how great it was and how great it was that now we are crashing into the wall of reality. We need to discuss it with the kids. The only thing that works is to set rules, rules of use and rules of time. But above all, it is to discuss these rules with the children. If you just lay down Stalin-style rules, it won’t work. If we set rules explaining that we must reduce the time because it has effects on sleep, depression, academic success, studies show that it has much greater effects.
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