Addiction specialist: ‘Social media is the drugification of human connection’

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By Erin Dean

Professor Anna Lembke has closely studied the rise of behavioural addictions in the digital era. She shares what doctors need to know about social media harms – and the difference they can make.

Professor Anna Lembke is at the forefront of the international debate on the harms posed by excessive use of social media.

A psychiatrist and medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford University Medical School, she warns that social media can be deeply addictive – particularly for young people.

Concern about the impact of social media is certainly growing. Australia has banned under 16s from many platforms since late 2025 and Lembke recently gave evidence when a young woman in the US successfully sued Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and YouTube over her childhood addiction to social media. In June plans were announced to ban under 16s from many social media platforms in the UK.

Your kid's developing brain is not ready to manage that kind of potent drug on their own