Delphi Consensus on Teen Tech Harms

Updated: 2026.01.16 13D ago 12 sources
Over 120 researchers from 11 fields used a Delphi process to evaluate 26 claims about smartphones/social media and adolescent mental health, iterating toward consensus statements. The panel generated 1,400 citations and released extensive supplements showing how experts refined positions. This provides a structured way to separate agreement, uncertainty, and policy‑relevant recommendations in a polarized field. — A transparent expert‑consensus protocol offers policymakers and schools a common evidentiary baseline, reducing culture‑war noise in decisions on youth tech use.

Sources

Trapped in the hell of social comparison
Noah Smith 2026.01.16 66% relevant
Smith cites the transformation of social media since the 2010s (friends → influencer feeds) as changing mental‑health impacts; that connects to the Delphi effort to distinguish where evidence supports harms and where it doesn't — Smith is arguing a shift in the framing and mechanism that such consensus methods should re‑examine.
Study Finds Weak Evidence Linking Social Media Use to Teen Mental Health Problems
BeauHD 2026.01.16 72% relevant
The article’s emphasis on nuance (harms are real for specific negative exposures; duration alone is not explanatory) aligns with the Delphi theme that expert consensus separates what is agreed, uncertain, and policy‑relevant — this study supplies a large empirical data point the Delphi community would use in robustness maps.
Methodology
Reem Nadeem 2026.01.15 45% relevant
Pew’s survey methodology (ATP design, oversamples, fielding period, margin of error) complements Delphi‑style consensus work by providing the representative public‑opinion baseline against which expert consensus and policy recommendations are compared; transparent methods matter when translating expert panels into public policy.
Personality Change in the Teen Years
Steve Stewart-Williams 2026.01.10 70% relevant
The article supplies granular, longitudinal personality data that informs and complicates expert consensus on adolescent harms from technology—showing a developmental dip in traits (conscientiousness, agreeableness) and a sexed neuroticism rise that any Delphi‑style guidance on youth tech or school policy should incorporate as baseline risk and timing information (study: Steinsbekk et al., 805 Norwegian teens measured at 10/12/14/16).
The loneliness crisis isn't just male
Lakshya Jain 2026.01.09 85% relevant
The article presents new, large‑scale survey evidence about youth loneliness and anxiety that is precisely the kind of empirical input a Delphi‑style expert consensus would use to separate robust harms from hype; it strengthens the case for convening multidisciplinary, evidence‑anchored panels to make policy recommendations on youth tech, schooling and mental‑health services.
Adolescent Mental Health in the Digital Age: Facts, Fears and Future Directions - PMC
2026.01.04 70% relevant
Both the review and later Delphi work share the same project: separate well‑supported findings from hype. Odgers & Jensen highlight heterogeneity, measurement problems, and the need for preregistered, longitudinal and intensive designs — the same methodological priorities the Delphi consensus later formalized.
School Daze
Josh Zlatkus 2025.12.29 80% relevant
The author highlights screens, phones, and play‑loss as plausible drivers of youth anxiety and ADHD diagnoses — precisely the contested space the Delphi consensus and related meta‑work set out to adjudicate; the post argues for a layered causal account rather than a single‑factor explanation.
Smartphones At Age 12 Linked To Worse Health
BeauHD 2025.12.02 70% relevant
The article presents new cohort evidence that can be incorporated into expert consensus efforts; the ABCD dataset and Pediatrics publication are concrete empirical inputs that help move a polarized field toward evidence‑based consensus on which risks (sleep, mood, obesity) are credibly linked to early smartphone uptake.
The Benefits of Social Media Detox
Bob Grant 2025.12.01 70% relevant
The article provides an additional data point that complements the structured expert consensus effort: a trial‑style intervention showing short breaks reduce symptoms, which helps move the Delphi’s zones of agreement/uncertainty toward concrete, actionable recommendations for schools and clinicians.
Behind the Scenes of the Consensus Statement on Potential Negative Impacts of Smartphone and Social Media Use
2025.10.07 100% relevant
The preprint 'A Consensus Statement on Potential Negative Impacts of Smartphone and Social Media Use on Adolescent Mental Health' and its 170+ pages of supplemental deliberation materials.
Are screens harming teens? What scientists can do to find answers
2025.04.02 70% relevant
By urging transparency about uncertainties and prioritizing research that can guide action, the editorial supports expert‑consensus efforts to delineate what’s known, unknown, and policy‑relevant on youth tech harms.
Are screens causing a teen depression? Jean Twenge's new book shows the link : Shots - Health News : NPR
2023.04.25 90% relevant
The article reports that multiple, higher‑quality studies and new datasets are converging on a consistent picture about social media and adolescent mental health — exactly the sort of evidence synthesis and structured expert evaluation the Delphi idea recommends as a way to move policy beyond noisy, partisan claims (NPR cites Twenge’s Generations and recent experimental work).
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