A Legal Review on Social Media

Social media’s wide-reaching global presence has prompted researchers to attempt to identify and quantify any psychological or physical effects of its use. Thousands of studies published have identified various benefits or harms from social media use in varying degrees. Despite this, there has been no comprehensive analysis of how the effects of social media use should be legally regulated, if at all. This systematic review fills that gap by comparing the conclusions of current scientific research to the legal coding in California State. Six main harms were identified from social media use. Of these, addiction was identified as the best candidate for legal reform due to its role as a catalyst in worsening the other five harms and its absence from the legal literature.