Queensland chief health officer declares ‘public health alert’ over mental wellbeing of teenagers
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer John Gerrard has declared a “public health alert” over the rise in mental health issues among the state’s young people, coinciding with the emergence of smart phones and social media.
“It’s a significant issue,” Dr Gerrard told the ABC.
His comments come a year after alarming data published in his Health of Queenslanders report revealed self-harm hospitalisations for girls aged up to 14 years have more than tripled since 2009.
The report found self-harm incidents among girls under 14 had spiked from 19.1 hospital admissions per 100,000 people in 2008-09 to 70.5 per 100,000 in 2020-21.
Among girls aged 15 to 19 years, hospitalisations for self-harm nearly doubled from 373.6 per 100,000 people to 697.7 per 100,000 in the same period.
While stopping short of recommending legal restrictions on social media use by young people at this stage, Dr Gerrard said: “This is a public health alert.”
Health guide for social media use
Earlier this year, Queensland Health brought together a group of mental health and social media experts to examine the effects of social media on the mental health of young people.
It came in the wake of the “worrying drop in the mental health and wellbeing of young people” identified in Dr Gerrard’s report.
For the first time this week, the Queensland health department has posted detailed guidelines on its website regarding social media use.
“Queensland Health recommends parents limit access to social media for children under the age of 14 years, closely monitor and support children as it is introduced, and restrict time until healthy habits are established,” the guide says.
“We support parents, carers and young Queenslanders to opt for a ‘safety first’ approach to protect the mental health and wellbeing of our young people.”
The department suggests that restricting social media access can include preventing young people from creating their own social media accounts and from using social media without supervision.
The guidelines also encourage parents to engage their children in open discussions about social media content and to ensure their social media engagement is “short in duration, and healthy in content”.
Another recommendation is for parents to ensure there are “no devices in bedrooms overnight”.
Premier backs call but no legislation plans yet
Queensland Premier Steven Miles, a father of three, said he and his wife Kim had struggled as parents with their children’s use of social media.
“We certainly would have welcomed more guidance, and better guidance from people with access to the evidence, about when and how social media should be introduced,” he told a news conference.
Mr Miles said he supported calls for social media to be age restricted for those under 14-years-old, and to require parental approval for access for those aged between 14 and 16.
“I think that’s a sensible measure when we’re seeing just so much evidence about how social media plays with the brains of young people,” he said.
“I think we’ve all experienced how the systems are designed to encourage us to doom scroll, but the minds of young people are so impressionable and can be so easily impacted.
“We don’t let young people use pokies and I think pokies are designed to have a similar effect.”
Meanwhile, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has appointed former High Court Chief justice Robert French to examine how his state could implement a ban on platforms including Instagram and TikTok.
Mr French has been tasked with examining “the legal, regulatory and technological pathways” for the government to impose a ban.
In Queensland, the health department has made recommendations and Dr Gerrard said: “At this stage we don’t have a set position on legislation”.
The father of two adult daughters told reporters he suspected many parents were unaware of the significance of the social media problem and its affect on the mental health of children and teenagers.
“I regard myself as a fairly informed person,” he said.
“When our team first showed me the data … I thought: ‘No. This is a mistake.’
“But then they reassured me. We looked at the data further. It was correct and furthermore, the same phenomenon is being seen right across the developed world in North America and Europe.
“This phenomenon is real, and it is serious.”
Social media not just impacting girls
Dr Gerrard said the issue was not solely affecting young girls.
“We are also seeing a decline in the mental health of boys,” he said.
“And it’s very important to remember that for every teenager that is actually admitted to hospital with self-harm, there are likely to be very large numbers of teenagers out there who are suffering in other ways, who are experiencing mental distress that never reaches the attention of a psychiatrist or a hospital.
“It probably is affecting all teenagers to some extent.”
Dr Gerrard said the best approach towards tackling the problem was “still not totally clear”, with ongoing debate among mental health experts.
But he said, given its seriousness, it was time to have an open discussion with young people about the potential dangers of social media content.
“Above all else, the community at large needs to engage in this and talk about this problem because we cannot pretend that it’s not here,” Dr Gerrard said.
“As much as possible, parents should try and engage the online world that their children inhabit.”
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