Government and Public Health

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Social Media and Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory. 2023. Reaffirmed 2025.Open ↗
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory. 2023.Open ↗
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report 2013–2023. 2024.Open ↗
• Verlenden et al. Mental Health and Suicide Risk Among High School Students and Protective Factors. MMWR Suppl. 73(4). October 2024.Open ↗
• CDC. Frequent Social Media Use and Experiences with Bullying Victimization, Persistent Feelings of Sadness or Hopelessness, and Suicide Risk Among High School Students — YRBS, U.S., 2023.Open ↗
• CDC. U.S. Teen Girls Experiencing Increased Sadness and Violence. Press release. February 2023.Open ↗
• National Center for Education Statistics. School Pulse Panel: Cell Phone Policies in Public Schools. February 2025.Open ↗
• World Health Organization. Commission on Social Connection: Global Report. 2025.Open ↗
• Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sextortion: A Growing Threat Targeting Minors. PSA. 2024.Open ↗
• Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Financially Motivated Sextortion Threat. PSA. 2024.Open ↗
• DHS / FBI / NCMEC. National Public Safety Alert on Sextortion Schemes. 2022, updated 2024.Open ↗

Pew Research Center

• Pew Research Center. Teens, Social Media and Technology 2024. April 2024.
• Pew Research Center. Teens, Social Media and Mental Health. April 2025.Open ↗

Common Sense Media

• Common Sense Media. The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens. 2021.Open ↗
• Common Sense Media. Two Years Into the Pandemic, Media Use Has Increased 17% Among Tweens and Teens. Press release, March 2022.Open ↗
• Common Sense Media. The 2025 Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Zero to Eight. February 2025.Open ↗

Peer-Reviewed Research

• Twenge, J., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L., & Martin, G. N. Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen Time. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(1). 2018.Open ↗
• Twenge, J. Increases in Depression, Self-Harm, and Suicide Among U.S. Adolescents After 2012 and Links to Technology Use. Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice. 2022.Open ↗
• Twenge, J., Spitzberg, B. H., & Campbell, W. K. Less in-person social interaction with peers among U.S. adolescents in the 21st century and links to loneliness. JSPR, 36(6). 2019.Open ↗
• Abi-Jaoude, E., Naylor, K. T., & Pignatiello, A. Smartphones, social media use and youth mental health. CMAJ, 192(6). 2020.Open ↗
• Burgess, K. The Decline in Adolescents’ Mental Health with the Rise of Social Media: A Narrative Review. 2025.Open ↗
• Griffiths, S., Whitehead, G., et al. Does TikTok contribute to eating disorders? A comparison of TikTok algorithms belonging to individuals with eating disorders versus healthy controls. Body Image, 51. 2024.Open ↗
• Abrahamsson, S. Smartphone Bans, Student Outcomes and Mental Health. Norwegian Institute for Public Health. 2024.
• Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(2). 2019.
• Odgers, C. L. The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness? Nature, 628. 2024.Open ↗
• Hancock, J., et al. Psychological Wellbeing and Social Media Use: A Meta-Analysis. 2022.
• Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. National Institutes of Health. Multiple publications, 2018–2025.
• National Sleep Foundation. The impact of screen use on sleep health across the lifespan: A NSF consensus statement. Sleep Health. 2024.Open ↗

Books

• Haidt, Jonathan. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Penguin Press. 2024.
• Twenge, Jean. iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. Atria Books. 2017.
• Lembke, Anna. Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. Dutton. 2021.

Investigative Journalism

• Wall Street Journal. The Facebook Files. Multi-part series, September 2021 onward. Based on documents leaked by Frances Haugen.
• FBarchive — A Searchable Repository of Facebook Whistleblower Documents.Open ↗
• Center for Countering Digital Hate. Deadly by Design: TikTok pushes harmful content to teens. December 2022.Open ↗

Litigation Documents and Press Releases

• New York Attorney General. Attorney General James and Multistate Coalition Sue Meta for Harming Youth. October 2023.Open ↗
• Social Media Victims Law Center. Selena Rodriguez vs. Meta Platforms, Inc. and Snap, Inc. January 2022.Open ↗
• Death of Molly Russell — Inquest findings, North London Coroner’s Court, September 2022.Open ↗
• Time Magazine. The Lawyer Suing Social-Media Companies On Behalf of Kids. November 2025.Open ↗

Legislation

• Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). S.1409, 118th Congress. Reintroduced in the 119th Congress, May 2025.Open ↗
• Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 (Australia). Passed Nov 29, 2024; effective Dec 10, 2025.Open ↗
• Online Safety Act 2023 (United Kingdom).
• Digital Services Act (European Union). Effective 2024.