UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Federal Trade Commission

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20580

Office of Commissioner

Alvaro M. Bedoya

Prepared Remarks of Commissioner Alvaro M. Bedoya 

Federal Trade Commission 

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine

Meeting of the Committee on the Impact of Social Media on the 

Health and Wellbeing of Children & Adolescents0F

1

February 7, 2023 

1. We need to do more to protect our kids’ mental health. 

My wife and I have two toddlers. Being a parent is hard. Personally, I think the hardest 

part is not changing diapers or losing sleep. I think the hardest part of being a parent is when you 

know your child is hurting, but you don’t know why – and you do not know how to help them. 

We are in the middle of a youth mental health emergency.1F

2

 Suicide is now the secondleading cause of death for children 10 to 14 years of age.2F

3

 

Ask a parent, today, what they are most worried about for their children, and their 

number one answer is not drugs, or alcohol, or teen pregnancy – their top concern is their 

children’s mental health.3F

4

Parents and experts increasingly point to social media as a key contributor to this crisis. 

But parents are still struggling to figure out exactly what’s going on, and how they can help their 

kids. They are taking their kids to the doctor. They are taking them to therapists. They are trying 

to limit the hours their kids go online. They are trying to get a sense of what their kids are doing 

online. Too many parents still feel helpless. 

1 The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Trade Commission 

or any other Commissioner. 2 Deepa Shivaram, Pediatricians Say the Mental Health Crisis Among Kids Has Become a National Emergency, 

NPR (Oct. 20, 2021), https://www.npr.org/2021/10/20/1047624943/pediatricians-call-mental-health-crisis-amongkids-a-national-emergency; Janelle Chavez, Children’s mental health tops list of parent worries, survey finds, CNN 

(Jan 31, 2023), https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/health/mental-health-parenting-survey/index.html (“Even before 

the pandemic, we were seeing skyrocketing numbers of kids and adolescents dealing with mental health issues, and 

that has increased exponentially since the pandemic.”).

3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Facts About Suicide, CDC INJURY CENTER: SUICIDE 

PREVENTION (accessed Feb. 2, 2023), https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/index.html. 4 Rachel Minkin & Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Parenting in America Today, PEW RSCH. CTR. (Jan. 24, 2023), 

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/01/24/parenting-in-america-today/. 
2

It’s not just parents. One in three teens say they use social media or video sites “almost 

constantly.” About the same number say that that’s too much. Yet more than half say that they 

would not know how to stop.4F

5

In response to a recent survey, a 14-year-old named Hannah said: “I always want it near 

me . . . when I’m sitting on the sofa, I just scroll.”

Lara, age 13, said: “I kind of wanted to have more time to do stuff other than just go on 

my phone . . . [but] it didn’t work, I kept turning it off and then going back and still using it.” 

Otto, 15: “Sometimes I’ll go on it at like 11pm and won’t go off it until six in the 

morning.”

Jack, 14: “Once you start, you can’t stop.”

This should not surprise anyone. After all, we live in an attention economy. 

In the words of one engineer: “Companies make their money from attention. Reducing 

attention will reduce revenue. If you are a designer working in an attention business, you will 

design for attention.”5F

6 In the words of another engineer: “There are no safety standards – there is 

no ethics board in the digital space.”6F

7

In an attention economy, companies very literally compete for our thoughts, our time, our 

minds. No one should be surprised if that economy affects our mental health. 

And compulsive use is just part of the problem. Research suggests that mental health 

harms are also driven by harassment, social comparison, and lack of sleep, among other factors.7F

8

Today, I want to talk about why we are where we are, and the work we’re doing to make 

it better.

I want to start by addressing two doubts. First, many people still question the existence of 

a relationship between social media use and adolescent mental health. And second, many people 

think that any legal action will be blocked by laws that immunize websites against claims 

5 Emily A. Vogels, Risa Gelles-Watnick, & Navid Massarat, Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022, PEW RSCH.

CTR. (Aug. 10, 2022), https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/ 

(“Fully 35% of teens say they are using at least one of [YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook] 

‘almost constantly.’”); ibid (“about a third of teens (36%) say they spend too much time on social media”); id. 

(“Asked about the idea of giving up social media, 54% of teens say it would be at least somewhat hard to give it 

up”).

6 5RIGHTS FOUND., PATHWAYS: HOW DIGITAL DESIGN PUTS CHILDREN AT RISK § 2: Designers (2021) [hereinafter

PATHWAYS REPORT], https://5rightsfoundation.com/uploads/Pathways-how-digital-design-puts-children-at-risk.pdf. 7 Id. § 2. 8 Yvonne Kelly et al., Social Media Use and Adolescent Mental Health: Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort 

Study, 6 THE LANCET 59 (2018), https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2589-5370%2818%2930060-9 

(“Greater social media use related to online harassment, poor sleep, low self-esteem

and poor body image; in turn these related to higher depressive symptom scores.”).
3

relating to the content they publish. They also believe it would be unwise, even harmful, to 

undercut that immunity.

I want to speak to those doubts. Next, I want to highlight a third reason for the current 

status quo: A lack of in-house psychologists and other mental health experts at tech regulators.

So, I want to talk through those three issues. I want to tell you what we at the FTC are 

doing to try to address them. And I want to respectfully ask for your help.

2. The relationship between social media use and youth mental health is real. 

I spent most of the last 15 years in the world of technology policy and research, first in 

government and then in the academy and at an NGO. When I talk about the relationship between 

social media and teen mental health with friends and former colleagues, one of the first questions 

I get is: “Is this real – or is it just another moral panic? Don’t we need more time to tell? Don’t 

we need more research? Is this real?”

My answer to that question is yes. It is real. 

Because we have had time to observe the effects of social media. There is a generation of 

students sitting in college lecture halls that have never known a world without social media – and 

who never spent a day in high school or middle school without it. To put this in perspective, 

social media is older than the iPhone, older than Uber and Lyft, older than streaming services 

like Netflix and Hulu; it is even older than Amazon Prime.8F

9

That time has allowed for research. By my reckoning, there is at least eight years of peerreviewed scientific research on the impact of smartphone-enabled social media on the adolescent 

brain. 

9 The first social networks were founded in the late 1990s to early 2000s, with LinkedIn founded in 2003 and 

Facebook founded in 2004. Chenda Ngak, Then and Now: A History of Social Networking Sites, CBS NEWS: XSCITECH (Jul. 6, 2011), https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/then-and-now-a-history-of-social-networking-sites/4/. 

Later, Apple’s iPhone launched in 2007. Apple Press Release, “Apple Reinvents the Phone with iPhone,” (Jan. 9, 

2007), https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/01/09Apple-Reinvents-the-Phone-with-iPhone/. Uber launched its 

service in 2010, two years before Lyft launches in 2012. Avery Hartmans & Paige Leskin, The History of How Uber 

Went from the Most Feared Startup in the World to Its Massive IPO, INSIDER (May 18, 2019), 

https://www.businessinsider.com/ubers-history. In 2007, Hulu was founded, and Netflix launched its streaming 

service. Brad Stone & Brian Stelter, Hulu, the Online-Video Hub, Contemplates Its Future, SEATTLE TIMES (Apr. 5, 

2010), https://www.seattletimes.com/business/hulu-the-online-video-hub-contemplates-its-future/. Tara Bitran, Skip 

Intro: Netflix Turns 25 Today, NETFLIX: TUDUM (Aug. 29, 2022), https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/netflixtrivia-25th-anniversary. Amazon launched its Prime membership in 2005. Jordan Weissmann, Amazon Is Jacking 

Up the Cost of Prime, and It’s Still Cheap, SLATE (Mar. 13, 2014), https://slate.com/business/2014/03/amazonprime-price-increase-it-s-still-inexpensive.html.
4

That body of literature is nuanced.9F

10 For example, the relationships between mood 

disorders and social media use may run in both directions.10F

11 And the results of that research vary 

depending on what exactly is being measured, the exact population being evaluated, and the time 

period in question. Unfortunately, some research lumps in social media use with other forms of 

screen time, or fails to account for gender, or looks at behavior from before 2010, when 

contemporary patterns of social media use had yet to develop.

But there are trends. For example, a series of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies 

suggests that teenagers, particularly teenage girls, who spend more than two or three hours a day 

on social media, suffer from increased rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.11F

12

A separate set of studies have linked the use of photo-rich social media to increased 

incidence of eating disorders.12F

13

10 Niall McCrae, Sheryl Gettings, & Edward Purssell, Social Media and Depressive Symptoms in Childhood and 

Adolescence: A Systematic Review, 2 ADOLESCENT RSCH REV. 315 (2017), 

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40894-017-0053-4; Noah Kreski et al., Social Media Use and Depressive 

Symptoms Among United States Adolescents, 68 J. ADOLESCENT HEALTH 572 (2021), 

https://www.jahonline.org/action/showPdf?pii=S1054-139X%2820%2930403-1; Madeleine J. George et al., Young 

Adolescents’ Digital Technology Use, Perceived Impairments, and Well-Being in a Representative Sample, 219 J. 

PEDIATRICS 180 (2020), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7570431/. 11 See, e.g., Hugues Sampasa-Kanyiga & Rosamund Lewis, Frequent Use of Social Networking Sites Is Associated 

with Poor Psychological Functioning Among Children and Adolescents, 18(7) CYBERPSYCHOLOGY, BEHAV. & SOC.

NETWORKING 380 (Jul. 2015), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280059931 (speculating about two-way 

relationship between depression and social media use).

12 See, e.g., Sampasa-Kanyiga & Lewis supra note 11 (“[d]aily [social networking site] use of more than 2 hours 

was... independently associated with poor self-rating of mental health and experiences of high levels of 

psychological distress and suicidal ideation.”); Jean M. Twenge et al., Increases in Depressive Symptoms, SuicideRelated Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen 

Time, 6 CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 1, 3, 10 (Jan. 2018), https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376 

(“adolescents using electronic devices 3 or more hours a day were 34% more likely to have at least one suiciderelated outcome than those using devices 2 or fewer hours a day...”); Kira E. Riehm et al., Associations Between 

Time Spent Using Social Media and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems Among US Youth, 76 JAMA

PSYCHIATRY 12 at 1266 (Sept. 2019), https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31509167/ (longitudinal study finding that 

“[a]dolescents who spend more than 3 hours per day using social media may be at heightened risk for mental health 

problems”), Sarah Coyne et al., Suicide Risk in Emerging Adulthood: Associations with Screen Time over 10 years, 

50 JOURNAL OF YOUTH AND ADOLESCENCE 2324, 2338 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01389-6 

(longitudinal study finding that “adolescents whose social media use... is 2-3 h or more and increased over time 

could be at clinical levels of suicide risk”).

13 Annalise G. Mabe, K. Jean Forney, & Pamela K. Keel, Do You “Like” My Photo? Facebook Use Maintains 

Eating Disorder Risk, 47(5) INT’L J. EATING DISORDERS 516 (2014),

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/eat.22254; Alexandra R. Lonergan et al., Protect Me from My 

Selfie: Examining the Association Between Photo-Based Social Media Behaviors and Self-reported Eating 

Disorders in Adolescence, 53(5) INT’L J. EATING DISORDERS 485 (2020), 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/eat.23256; Simon M. Wilksch et al., The relationship between 

social media use and disordered eating in young adolescents, 53(1) INT’L J. EATING DISORDERS 93 (2019), 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/eat.23198; see also Kim Rounsefell et al., Social media, body image 

and food choices in healthy young adults: A mixed methods systematic review, 77(1) NUTRITION & DIETETICS 19 

(2019), https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1747-0080.12581 (systematic review finding associations 

between social media use, body image, and food choice).
5

Would more research help? Yes, it would – and we will get it. Congress just passed a new 

initiative that will provide $15 million in funding for more research this year.13F

14

But the existing research was enough for the U.S. Surgeon General to issue an advisory 

warning that while all uses of social media do not hurt everyone, some uses of social media 

likely do harm certain groups of young people.14F

15 And the existing research was also enough for 

our nation’s top doctor to say that, “personally, based on the data I’ve seen, [I] believe that 13 is 

too young to be on social media.”15F

16

So, while we may not know everything, we know a lot. And we cannot wait until we 

know everything before we do more to help. 

3. Existing law offers a range of tools to help.

The second set of doubts I hear is focused on regulators’ legal ability to address this 

problem and the wisdom of our using that authority. 

When people hear that I am looking for ways to protect teen mental health on social 

media, they often say: “Wait, doesn’t the law make it difficult to regulate content on social media 

platforms? And is it a good idea for a regulator to get into content moderation?” They warn –

based on past, repeated experience – that any effort to regulate “harmful” content will inevitably 

result in taking down content that is offensive to some but vital to others – like resources for gay, 

queer, or trans youth, posts about racial justice, or information on reproductive rights. 

I take these concerns seriously. I am listening to them. 

I am particularly sympathetic to concerns that efforts to protect teen mental health may 

end up hurting people for whom the Internet is not a convenience, but a lifeline. For a lot of trans 

teenagers, for example, social media is the one place where they can find a community that 

accepts them and celebrates them. Yet already, today, trans people are disproportionately likely 

to have their posts taken down and mislabeled as “adult content” even when they are clearly 

following community guidelines.16F

17

We have to reckon with these concerns. There is no running away from them. Any effort 

to improve teen mental health online cannot cut off that lifeline. 

14 Press Release: Senators Markey, Bipartisan Colleagues Celebrate Passage of CAMRA Act to Fund Research on 

Impact of Tech on Childhood Development, SEN. ED MARKEY (Jan. 3, 2023), 

https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-markey-bipartisan-colleagues-celebrate-passage-ofcamra-act-to-fund-research-on-impact-of-tech-on-childhood-development. 15 OFFICE OF THE SURGEON GENERAL, PROTECTING YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH: THE U.S. SURGEON GENERAL’S 

ADVISORY (2021) at 25-28, https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-youth-mental-healthadvisory.pdf. 16 CNN, Surgeon General Says 13 Is ‘Too Early’ to Join Social Media, CNN: HEALTH (Jan. 30, 2023), 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/29/health/surgeon-general-social-media/index.html. 17 Oliver L. Haimson, Disproportionate Removals and Differing Content Moderation Experiences for Conservative, 

Transgender, and Black Social Media Users: Marginalization and Moderation Gray Areas, 5 (CSCW2) 

PROCEEDINGS ACM ON HUM.-COMPUT. INTERACTION 1 (2021), https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3479610 

(“Transgender participants’ content was often removed as adult despite following site guidelines”).
6

In my time with you today, however, I want to highlight that even if you agree with these 

concerns regarding content moderation, existing law still offers us a range of options to protect 

teen mental health on social media. 

Because if you take a slow, careful look at what critics say is driving teen mental health 

issues online, only part of it stems from content recommendation algorithms. 

I recommend reading an extraordinary report from the 5Rights Foundation in the United 

Kingdom – the Pathways report.17F

18 The authors of that report conducted an in-depth survey of the 

design strategies that allegedly drive a range of social media harms. They also interviewed the 

product designers who built these systems, as well as teens themselves – those were many of the 

quotes I shared earlier. 

The report argues that content recommendation algorithms deliberately play into the 

psychological vulnerabilities of young people to keep them online. But the report also lays out a 

range of other design decisions that social media companies use to prolong engagement – a 

critical contributor, they say, to mental health harms online. 

These strategies include intermittent variable rewards, video autoplay, 24-hour push 

notifications and nudges, infinite scroll, content that expires within a predetermined window, and 

quantified public popularity that enables social comparison.

These so-called persuasive design strategies are set alongside yet another set of simple 

privacy decisions that help drive and keep young people online. For example, a site may decide 

to restrict direct contact between strangers – or they may decide to allow it, a decision that 

undoubtedly would increase the number of messages and nudges that kids receive from an app or 

service. 

Why am I talking about this? Because persuasive design strategies, default open and 

direct communications between children and adults – this is not content. This is design. This is 

architecture. This is the structure that social media companies have built around content – the 

kind of features that several courts have declined to immunize.18F

19

Let me be very clear: I am not saying that content recommendation algorithms aren’t

contributing to mental health problems. Nor am I trying to deprioritize that question. Nor am I 

saying that federal law would immunize these algorithms. In fact, critics would say that these 

algorithms are also architecture, rather than content. I am not expressing an opinion either way 

on any of these questions. 

18 PATHWAYS REPORT supra note 6. 19 See, e.g., Barnes v. Yahoo!, Inc., 570 F.3d 1096, 1100 (9th Cir. 2009) (“To ‘provid[e] immunity every time a 

website uses data initially obtained from third parties would eviscerate [the statute].’” (quoting Fair Hous. Council 

of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com, LLC, 521 F.3d 1157, 1171 (9th Cir. 2008)) (brackets in original); 

Roommates.com, LLC, 521 F.3d at 1171 (holding that Roommates.com was “not entitled to [Section 230] immunity 

for the operation of its search system . . . which directs emails to subscribers according to discriminatory criteria.”)
7

I am saying that there is clear room in the law, today, to act on closely related but 

separate problems. And that’s exactly what the FTC just did. 

In December, we settled an action against the makers of the videogame Fortnite – not just 

around issues of data collection, but also because we alleged that by default, they let unknown 

adults speak to kids playing online via a live audio connection.

This is what one parent wrote on the FTC’s webpage: “My 13 year old son plays fortnite 

and he has been having people sending him awful messages on the game telling him to kill 

himself and to die.”19F

20 As we described in our complaint, another parent emailed the makers of 

Fortnite to say that, “[t]his morning, while on Fortnite, my 9 year old son had . . . someone he 

doesn’t know in real life, but has been playing with for months[] tell him that he was going to 

kill himself tonight. It shook him to the core.”20F

21

So, the Commission is already using its unfairness authority to stop what appears to be 

one of the drivers of mental health issues online.21F

22

4. We need in-house psychologists to help us evaluate alleged mental health harms. 

So, to review: This is real. And we do have the law we need to act. The next question is: 

Do we have the expertise we need to do that?

This is a question that the Federal Trade Commission thinks a lot about. When we were 

created in 1914, Congress deliberately sought to create an agency that would closely study 

complex issues, develop expertise on them, and use that knowledge to inform Congress and its 

own enforcement decisions.22F

23

Over the years, the Commission has looked at its own expertise and strategically 

expanded it. In 1954, the Commission expanded its Division of Economics into a full bureau.23F

24

We now employ over 80 full time Ph.D. economists whose research is frequently cited in 

enforcement briefs, court decisions, Presidential reports, and academic scholarship.

20 Lesley Fair, Record-Setting FTC Settlements with Fortnite Owner Epic Games Are the Latest “Battle Royale” 

Against Violations of Kids’ Privacy and Use of Digital Dark Patterns, FTC: BUS. BLOG (Dec. 19, 2022), 

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2022/12/record-setting-ftc-settlements-fortnite-owner-epic-games-arelatest-battle-royale-against-violations. 21 Complaint at ¶ 41, U.S. v. Epic Games, Inc. (E.D.N.C. 2022) (5:22 Civ. 518), 

https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2223087EpicGamesComplaint.pdf. 22 For adults, the FTC has used its unfairness authority for other health and safety cases. See, e.g., FTC v. 

Accusearch, Inc., 570 F.3d 1187 (10th Cir. 2009) (describing threats of harassment and surveillance as health and 

safety injury in stalkerware case); Complaint at ¶ 49, FTC & Nevada v. EMP Media, Inc., 2018 WL 3025942 (D.

Nev., 2018), https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/1623052_myex_complaint_1-9-18.pdf (describing

depression, anxiety, loss of reputation, and safety fears as health and safety injuries). 23 See generally H.R. REP. NO. 63-533 (1914); S. REP. NO. 63-597 (1914). 24 FTC Bureau of Economics, Transcript: Roundtable with Former Directors of the Bureau of Economics, FTC 

(Sept. 4, 2009) at 10, https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/public_events/roundtable-former-directorsbureau-economics/directorstablegood.pdf (remarks of Tim Muris).
8

In 2011, the Commission appointed its first Chief Technologist; a dozen years later, the 

FTC now boasts a full team of technologists who work alongside our investigators, paralegals, 

attorneys, and economists to help us detect and understand complex and hard-to-find 

technological harms.

In 2014, for example, FTC technologists analyzed 12 popular consumer apps and figured 

out that they were sharing people’s health information with 78 different third parties, including 

data on consumers’ diets and medical symptoms.24F

25 This is the kind of thing that would be 

invisible to anyone other than a technologist.

Thanks to this strategic recruiting, today, if I have an economic question or a technical 

question, there are dozens of experts I can turn to for help. We now need that expertise for 

mental health. We need in-house psychologists and other mental health experts. 

Let me give you a concrete example. Our most powerful consumer protection tool is 

arguably our authority to stop unfair trade practices. Those are practices that are likely to 

substantially injure consumers, that consumers cannot reasonably avoid, and that are not 

outweighed by countervailing benefits.25F

26

Our policy statement on this authority, from 1980, clarifies that a substantial injury can 

include “unwarranted risks to health and safety” – but warns that those injuries will not

ordinarily be “subjective” or “emotional.”26F

27

In my view, this leaves clear room for arguments that mental health harms can be 

cognizable unfairness injuries. Why? Because there’s a difference between a teenager being 

“emotional” and a teenager suffering from depression. There’s a difference between a nervous 

child and a child suffering from anxiety. There is a difference between a kid who is down on 

herself and a kid who is contemplating suicide. 

But here is where it gets hard. Because right now, if we want someone to help us 

understand that difference, we need to go through the process of hiring outside experts; we do 

not have any psychologists or other mental health experts in house. So, while we can get that 

expertise, those experts are not a part of our daily work.

You know who does think you need full-time psychologists on staff to identify mental 

health harms that may arise on social media? Social media companies.

I recently asked my staff to review LinkedIn to see how many psychologists were 

working for major tech companies. There were so many, that we had to limit it just to Ph.Ds. In 

25 Latanya Sweeney, Chief Technologist, Presentation: Consumer Generated and Controlled Health Data, FTC 

(May 7, 2014), https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_events/195411/consumer-health-data-webcastslides.pdf. 26 15 U.S.C. § 45. 27 Policy Statement on Unfairness, FTC (Dec. 17, 1980), https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/ftc-policystatement-unfairness (“Emotional impact and other more subjective types of harm, on the other hand, will not 

ordinarily make a practice unfair.”).
9

total, we found more than 200 public LinkedIn profiles for Ph.D. psychologists and other brain 

scientists working for major social media companies.27F

28

I also asked my staff to review public job boards. We found a number of open job listings 

at social media companies for senior, full-time psychological specialists. One listing was for an 

in-house “expert on psychological disorders, which could include but are not limited to substance 

addiction, anxiety-related disorders, eating disorders, and self-harming behaviors.” The listing 

indicates that this person will write policies to prevent these harms, and work on specific cases as 

they arise.28F

29 Curiously, we found even more job openings for psychologists focused on making 

platforms even more attractive to users, than we did listings for specialists to identify and prevent 

harms.29F

30

We need to close this expert gap. Fast. That is exactly what we are trying to do at the 

FTC. I’m pleased to say that under the leadership of Chair Khan, it is now part of the FTC’s 

strategic plan to formally explore hiring psychologists on staff.30F

31 But this is one of those rare 

instances in which I hope someone else beats us to it. 

And I hope that a decade from now, every major tech regulator has at least one full-time 

psychologist or mental health expert on staff. 

5. The road ahead.

These are some of the things I am doing at the FTC to understand and address the impact 

of social media on teen mental health. My team and I are reviewing the scientific literature, 

assessing our authority in this space, and exploring how to bring on psychologists as the newest 

generation of in-house experts. 

In the months ahead, I will be trying to coordinate our work across the federal 

government. The President of the United States has made this issue a top priority. The 

Department of Health and Human Services has launched a new Center on Excellence on Social 

Media and Mental Wellness.31F

32

28 A LinkedIn search for “psychology PhD,” narrowed by people and then by social media companies, initially 

returned 262 results, which included PhDs, non-PhD psychologists, and PhD candidate interns. LINKEDIN, 

https://www.linkedin.com. 29 Product Policy Manager, Psychological Wellbeing - Trust & Safety, TIKTOK CAREERS (accessed Oct. 19, 2022) 

(copy of job listing on file with FTC); see also Product Policy Manager, Psychological Wellbeing at TikTok, 

DAYBOOK (accessed Feb. 3, 2023), https://www.daybook.com/jobs/whAZERAEF3bpiuEBy. 30 See, e.g., UX Research Scientist, Reality Labs, META (accessed Feb. 3, 2023), 

https://www.metacareers.com/v2/jobs/1621530321537511; Lead UX Researcher, TIKTOK (accessed Feb. 3, 2023), 

https://careers.tiktok.com/position/7151832802920368415/detail. 31 FTC, STRATEGIC PLAN FOR FISCAL YEARS 2022-2026 (2022) at 24, 

https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/fy-2022-2026-ftc-strategic-plan.pdf. 32 President Joseph R. Biden, Transcript: State of the Union Address, WHITE HOUSE (Mar. 1, 2022), 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2022/; President Joseph R. Biden, Republicans and Democrats, 

Unite Against Big Tech Abuses, WALL ST. J. (Jan. 11, 2023), https://www.wsj.com/articles/unite-against-big-techabuses-social-media-privacy-competition-antitrust-children-algorithm-11673439411; SUBSTANCE ABUSE & MENTAL 

HEALTH SERV. ADMIN., NOFO NO. SM-22-013, CENTER OF EXCELLENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND MENTAL 

WELLBEING COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT (2022), https://www.samhsa.gov/grants/grant-announcements/sm-22-013.
10

And there is real expertise on this issue not just at HHS or the Surgeon General’s office, 

but also at the National Institutes of Health, the NTIA, and elsewhere. 

I will also engage with my counterparts in state legislatures and law enforcement, and, 

critically, our international counterparts. We may not have in-house psychologists, but some of

our colleagues in the U.K. and the Netherlands do – and we should learn from them as to how to

add and integrate this expertise into our work.

And that brings me to you. I think you have such an important role to play here. We are 

long overdue for a reckoning on youth mental health online. And, as I’ve said, I think a key 

barrier to that reckoning is a latent doubt as to whether the research supports a link between 

social media use and mental health. 

While I have not come to a conclusion about any specific company or practice, based on 

my own review of the literature I think it is clear that, in general, there is a relationship between 

certain uses of social media and youth mental health. It is nuanced, but it is real. But while I am a

lawyer and an FTC commissioner, I am not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or any kind of mental 

health expert.

I think that this group, working through the National Academies, could have an 

extraordinary impact in sharing with the world its own expert conclusions as to the existence and 

nature of that relationship and the targeted research that you feel remains to be done. I’m 

particularly interested in learning more about the specific designs and features that can lead to 

harm; much of the research looks at social media in general and does not identify the granular 

features that are contributing to alleged mental health harms. 

And if I can leave you with one specific request, it is this: If you come to believe that 

regulators like me would benefit from having experts like you as colleagues, if you think it is 

necessary to confront this challenge not just with the law or economics or technology, but also 

psychology, please say so. 

Thank you for your time. And, as a commissioner and a parent, please let me thank you 

for your work.