Social Media and the Wellbeing of Children and Young People: A Literature Review

Children and young people’s use of technology and social media is evolving at a rapid pace, with implications for their wellbeing. To understand these changes there needs to be wider awareness of the types and use of social media, impacts on wellbeing – plus the range of good practice and opportunities available. Highlighting these can help parents, caregivers, service providers, educators, policymakers and other adults better identify and respond to the challenges and opportunities of children and young people’s social media use. To support effective policy, practice and service innovation, this review examined literature published since 2010 on children and young people's use of social media and effects on their wellbeing. From the age of five nearly all Australian children regularly access the internet and by the time they become teenagers are avid users of social network services (SNS), online games and chat rooms, forums and instant messaging. As they increasingly go online via a mobile device or phone their access has become more personalised, frequent, and possible in a wide range of public and private spaces. Social media is a set of web applications that enable production, aggregation, sharing and remixing of content from multiple sources by mass, networked participants. They are giving rise to a rapidly evolving set of media practices and are increasingly embedded in other media modalities – such as television, online games and search. Consequently, social media is becoming a common feature of children and young people's everyday lives. However, social media are diverse and their effects on the wellbeing of children and young people are an emerging focus for research, policy and service delivery.