It’s harder than ever to be a young person. Today, kids face a range of threats – access to vaping products, fentanyl, addictive social media platforms, and more. These challenges – on top of an isolating pandemic – have caused a youth mental health crisis that I am committed to doing all I can to address.
The Surgeon General’s recently released report calling attention to the damage social media use can cause to teen mental health does not mince words: “Children and adolescents on social media are commonly exposed to extreme, inappropriate, and harmful content, and those who spend more than 3 hours a day on social media face double the risk of poor mental health including experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety.” That’s terrifying.
As we respond to this crisis, we want to hear from you. Please consider filling out a five-minute survey to provide feedback about how Colorado youth use social media and how it impacts their lives. The survey and more details are available here.
We’re taking proactive steps to address this crisis. Our Department is co-leading an ongoing bipartisan nationwide investigation of Meta and TikTok, evaluating these platforms’ impact on our youth’s mental and physical well-being. We also published a report recently discussing options on what these (and other) platforms should be doing to keep fentanyl dealers from using their sites.
The challenges to youth mental health remain top of mind for me as I build on work accomplished in our first term. You can learn more about all of our Department’s work around teen mental health here, including details on the types of organizations the Department of Law supports through grants, including the Hub in Durango, where I recently discussed the importance of this issue.
