Does social media need to be regulated just like the tobacco industry? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Social media has significant potential to create harm and should be regulated as such. That’s according to Carol Vidal, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins and one author of a recent study looking at the relationship between social media use and depression.

Vidal: Just like we weren't paying too much attention to the tobacco industry I think the social media industry's goal is to keep people engaged on the platforms because that's the way they make money. So you didn't make people pay to be on their platforms, the way that you make money as a company is by having people engaged so that they see more ads. The features they have are really attached to the things that make you be addicted to things, like the rewards with the likes and the shares, this constant flow of information that is of your interest.                  :30

Vidal says it’s clear the design of the platforms plays on addiction behaviors, and for people at risk this is especially troubling, and this includes young people, who spend much more time on these platforms than other age groups. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.