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AMERICAN V AM PSY'CN^ OLOGICA Usm wow ASSOCIATION TMEM Now SERVICES,INC. people are facing 4. The rarity of such advisories further underscores the need for action to help stem the mental health crisis of children and adolescents. There are many reasons why youth are experiencing this crisis today, and it is likely that there are simultaneous contributors to the outcomes presented above. Today, we are here to talk about whether youths' engagement with social media, and other online platforms, may be a relevant factor. Many psychological scientists, including myself and my colleagues, have been asking this same question for years. We seek to understand how this new context in which youths' social interactions occur may be related to development, including potential benefits or risks that may be conferred by the online environment. As the discipline with expertise on all of human behavior, our work has been broad in scope; and to date, our focus has been on the adolescent period, during which more complex and mature behaviors are developed through intricate and precise interactions among neural, biological, social, contextual, and social systems. Today, although this remains a relatively nascent body of research, I would like to share what we know so far, so policymakers, educators, parents, caregivers, and youth can learn from what we are beginning to discover and make choices that will ensure the safety of youth. In this testimony, I outline emerging research with findings that have begun to suggest possible benefits, and as well as possible adverse effects of technology and social media use on adolescent development. I also present legislative and regulatory solutions that if enacted, would represent positive steps towards learning more about, and hopefully solving this problem. I am calling for new legislation and regulations that increase research funding and provide education on how children can use online platforms without experiencing the most harmful impacts; legislation that creates a requirement that social media companies protect the well-being of child users; legislation that prohibits problematic business practices and prevents companies from tricking and manipulating users; and bills that provide more leverage for federal regulators to a Richtel,M. (2021,December 7). Surgeon General Warns of Youth Mental Health Crisis. The New York Times. lliddi�,s„//�a W v..:�rydrxllrc .`.°srxllr/ Q a/a /Q�// e:°ic re�/��a rcl�xllri` a;c,lcrl� e e rd cL.Lx,�ssion t�lxi �y.it�r llll. :hex: 'he%2Q�CTni eel/�2� t� es%2()suuls�.a t. 2Q.. �;etrcral. 3 APA.ORG APASERVICES.ORG 750 Furst Street,NIIE 202.336.5800 Advocating for APA rrNerri ers ood psychology Washington,DC'20002-4242 202.336,6123 TDD