(AURN News) — For many parents, social media has become a constant presence in their children’s lives, especially among teenagers who spend hours each day on platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
AURN News recently reported that YouTube remains the most widely used social media platform among U.S. teens. New data from the Pew Research Center show that 92% of teens ages 13 to 17 use YouTube, far surpassing TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.
The data also highlight a significant racial gap in usage. By race, Black teens reported the highest YouTube use, with 97% saying they use the platform. Black teens also lead in usage of TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, often by wide margins compared with white and Hispanic teens.
Mental health experts say that level of exposure can carry serious consequences.
“They don’t know the line between what is normal usage and what is getting into kind of this stress-related hormone that it’s releasing, and we as parents need to help them understand what the boundaries are because they’re just not able to pull away,” said trauma therapist Yori Aiyeola-Scott. “It is very addictive.”
Aiyeola-Scott, who has more than a decade of experience working with trauma, says teens are already navigating emotional and hormonal changes, and constant social media consumption can intensify anxiety, depression and confusion.
“When you are bombarded with messages and you’re not able to clarify what is real and what is fake, that is very, very confusing, especially with artificial intelligence,” she said.
The impact can be especially intense for Black teenagers, who research shows are among the most active social media users in the country. Pew data show Black teens use platforms like TikTok and Instagram at much higher rates than their peers and are nearly three times as likely as white teens to use X.
“They are being judged more and they’re being policed online for their skin color, their body, their confidence,” Aiyeola-Scott said. “And so it is really impacting them harder.”
Repeated exposure to online harassment, bullying and unrealistic images can rise beyond stress and become trauma, she said.
“It’s happening over and over and over,” Aiyeola-Scott said. “This is why it’s hitting teens, but Black teens even harder.”
Aiyeola-Scott urges parents to stay engaged and pay attention to changes in behavior, including sleep disruption, mood swings and declining grades. Many teens, she said, struggle to articulate what they are feeling.
“Many of them don’t have the vocabulary to come and say, hey, I’m feeling nervous. I’m feeling stressed. I’m feeling anxious,” she said.
She encourages parents to have candid conversations, monitor online activity and use parental tools available on social media platforms, even if it creates tension at home.
“This is your right,” she said. “At what point do we step in and say I have to be active and see what’s going on?”
If parents discover troubling online behavior, Aiyeola-Scott says safety must come first, including temporarily shutting down accounts, reporting harmful content and involving schools when appropriate.
“Your job is to keep your child safe,” she said.
She also warns of what she describes as growing signs of addiction tied to screens, including anxiety when devices are taken away, sleep disruption and difficulty separating reality from fiction.
“If you are seeing that it is negatively impacting your child, there are therapists who are licensed to help you,” she said. “You don’t have to do this alone.”
As artificial intelligence becomes more common across social media and gaming, Aiyeola-Scott says fear should not drive parenting decisions.
“I really choose not to operate in a space of fear but empowerment,” she said. “I want to understand how it can benefit us, how it’s used properly and how it can hurt us so that I can guide my children in the right direction.”
She also says staying informed and engaged may be the most important step parents can take as technology continues to shape how young people grow, connect and cope.
Click play to listen to the AURN News report from Jamie Jackson:
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