Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Issues ‘Public Health Alert’ on Teen Mental Wellbeing

John Gerrard, Chief Health Officer of Queensland, has declared a “public health alert” as mental health issues hike up among the state’s young people. Coincidentally, the emergence of social media and smartphones is also at its peak.

Dr Gerrard mentioned, “It’s a significant issue.” An alarming data was published about a year ago in his Health of Queenslanders. The report revealed girls aged up to 14 years have been hospitalized more than three times due to self-harm since 2009.

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The findings also indicated that incidents of self-harm among girls under 14 had increased from 19.1 hospitalizations per 100,000 people in 2008-09 to 70.5 per 100,000 in 2020-21. And for girls aged between 15 to 19 years, hospitalisations for self-harm almost increased two times from 373.6 per 100,000 people to 697.7 per 100,000 in the same period.

Earlier this year, a group of mental health and social media experts were brought by Queensland Health to examine how social media influences the mental health of young people. Dr Gerrard’s report informed a “worrying drop in the mental health and well-being of young people”.

This week, the Queensland Health Department has posted detailed guidelines regarding social media use on its website as follows:

1. Restricting social media access, like preventing young people from creating their own social media accounts and restricting using social media without supervision.
2. Parents can engage their children in open discussions about social media content and ensure their social media engagement is “short, and healthy in content”.
3. Parents should ensure there are “no devices in bedrooms overnight”.

Steven Miles, Premier of Queensland, a father of three, supported the idea of an age limit in social media. Social media should be restricted for those un14 years old, and for those aged between 14 and 16 parental approval is needed. 

Peter Malinauskas, Premier of South Australia has also appointed Robert French (former High Court Chief Justice) to find out how his state could implement a ban on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Dr Gerrard said, “We are also seeing a decline in the mental health of boys.” Dr Gerrard said the best way to deal with the problem was “still not clear” and it is time to engage young people in an open discussion about the dangers of social media content.