UNESCO warns about the impact of social networks on well-being

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has warned in a new report about the impact of social media on girls’ well-being, learning and career choices.

This was stated in a press release published on Thursday by the Paris-based UN Organization“A new UNESCO report warns that while digital technologies can improve teaching and learning, they also pose significant risks such as invasion of privacy, lack of concentration in lessons and cyberbullying.

In particular, the report highlights how social media reinforces gender stereotypes, leading to detrimental impacts on girls’ well-being, learning and career choices.

This was noted by UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay, quoted in a press release “Children’s social interactions are increasingly taking place on social networks. But all too often algorithm-driven platforms amplify exposure to negative gender norms.”

“Ethical considerations must be taken into account in the design of these platforms. Social media should not confine women and girls to roles that limit their educational and professional aspirations.” she added.

Titled “Technology on its terms” (Technology in Education: Girls in Chile), the report warns against algorithm-generated content and images, especially on social networks, that expose girls to sexual or sexual content that promotes unhealthy behavior or unrealistic beauty standards.

This exposure can have detrimental effects on self-esteem and body perception and affect girls’ mental health and well-being, which are critical to their academic success, according to the same source.

The UNESCO report cites research conducted by Facebook, which found that 32% of adolescent girls say that when they feel bad about their bodies, Instagram makes their discomfort worse. It also highlights the very design of TikTok that makes the app addictive through short and captivating videos. This pattern of instant gratification can affect concentration and study habits by making it difficult to concentrate on studies or extracurricular activities.

Girls also suffer more from cyberbullying than boys, UNESCO emphasizes. On average, across OECD countries with data on this topic, 12% of 15-year-old girls, compared to 8% of boys, reported being victims of cyberbullying.

This situation is exacerbated by the proliferation of image-based sexual content, AI-generated “deepfakes” (falsified photos or videos) and sexual images circulating online and in classrooms. In several countries analyzed for this report, female students reported being exposed to images or videos without their knowledge.

The report points out that it is necessary to invest more in education, especially in media and information literacy, and to better regulate digital platforms, in accordance with the UNESCO principles for the management of digital platforms published in November 2023.

This is further emphasized in the text “All of these elements create a vicious cycle: girls face negative gender stereotypes, reinforced by social media, which distract them from studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), disciplines that are thought to be reserved for men, thus denying them about the possibility of contributing to the design of the tools that create these stereotypes”.

According to UNESCO, worldwide women represent only 35% of STEM graduates in higher education, a figure that has not changed in the last 10 years. The report shows that persistent bias deters women from careers in STEM, resulting in the absence of women in the world of technology.

Women occupy less than 25% of positions in the fields of science, engineering, information and communication technologies. They represent only 26% of the workforce in data and artificial intelligence-related disciplines, 15% in engineering and 12% in “cloud computing” in the world’s major economies. Only 17% of patent applications are filed by women worldwide.

According to the report, digital transformation is primarily driven by men. Although 68% of countries have implemented policies that support education in STEM disciplines, only half of these policies specifically support girls and women.

Policy measures should seek to promote models of success, including on social networks, to encourage the professional orientation of young women in STEM disciplines, notes UNESCO; which emphasizes that this approach is necessary to ensure that women participate equally in the digital transformation of our societies and the design of technologies that are truly inclusive.