The paper's authors suggest that efforts should be made to reduce young people's exposure to harmful content and the impact it has on health activities (such as sleep and exercise).
Responding to the paper, a spokesperson at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said:
We welcome this new research, which offers further insight following our own screen time guide. The findings that frequent use of social media may disrupt activities that have a positive impact on mental health echo our own research.
We agree with the study that preventative efforts should consider interventions to prevent or increase resilience to cyberbullying and ensure adequate sleep and physical activity in young people. This issue is evolving but we hope the questions in our screen time guide offers families some help to examine their screen time.