‘Social media bans are likely to make things worse’: psychologist Candice Odgers on kids, tech and mental health

She has studied adolescent mental health for 25 years and fears the debate obscures some of the biggest issues facing teenagers – from the impact of Covid to the health of their adult caregivers The quickest way to make being online safer for children and teens would be to kick all adult men off the internet, the Canadian psychologist Candice Odgers believes. Men are the biggest perpetrators of sextortion and most likely to spread misinformation, she says. Odgers is not recommending this as a po

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ethics.ai (16 July 2026), “‘Social media bans are likely to make things worse’: psychologist Candice Odgers on kids, tech and mental health,” evidence record 10577, https://ethics.ai/record/10577 (originally published by The Guardian).

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