{"id":4179,"date":"2024-10-17T15:49:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T04:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/social-media-the-new-gateway-to-teen-drug-use-what-you-need-to-know-4\/"},"modified":"2024-10-17T15:49:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T04:49:25","slug":"social-media-the-new-gateway-to-teen-drug-use-what-you-need-to-know-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/social-media-the-new-gateway-to-teen-drug-use-what-you-need-to-know-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media \u2013 the New Gateway to Teen Drug Use? What You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"
 <\/div>\n

\"handphone\"Just when we thought we had a handle on teen substance abuse (we did NOT), along comes social media to throw a digital wrench <\/a>in the works. It turns out those shiny apps on our kids\u2019 phones aren\u2019t just for sharing selfies and dance videos \u2013 they\u2019re inadvertently serving as virtual gateways to drug and alcohol experimentation. While health officials have been patting themselves on the back for decades of anti-drug campaigns, social media algorithms have been quietly undermining their efforts, one viral post at a time. Parents, educators, and health professionals, it\u2019s time to face facts: we\u2019ve got a new drug dealer in town, and it\u2019s hiding in plain sight on every teenager\u2019s home screen. <\/p>\n

Leveraging Social Media for Prevention<\/strong><\/p>\n

While social media poses significant risks, some experts see potential in harnessing these platforms for substance use prevention and education. Government agencies and health organisations in the United States have launched anti-vaping campaigns on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, which may have contributed to recent declines in teen vaping rates.<\/p>\n

However, these efforts are still vastly outnumbered by pro-substance content. Researchers emphasise the need for sustained investment in developing effective social media-based prevention strategies. This could involve partnering with social media influencers to create engaging anti-drug content or collaborating with young people to co-design relevant messaging that resonates with teen audiences.<\/p>\n

The Australian government has begun experimenting with influencer-led campaigns to spark conversations among youth about the harms of vaping and nicotine addiction. While this approach leverages influencers\u2019 authenticity and established audience relationships, experts caution that careful vetting and risk mitigation plans are necessary.<\/p>\n

For complete article<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Just when we thought we had a handle on teen substance abuse (we did NOT), along comes social media to throw a digital wrench in the works. It turns out those shiny apps on our kids\u2019 phones aren\u2019t just for sharing selfies and dance videos \u2013 they\u2019re inadvertently serving as virtual gateways to drug and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parent-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}