Call for Abstracts! Submit your abstract for the upcoming conference, New Directions in Social Media Research: 7-8 December 2026, Cambridge, UK with keynote speakers @sonialivingstone.bsky.social, @rogierk.bsky.social, and Dr. Henry Shevlin Deadline: August 2 sites.google.com/view/social-...

Are new regulations for social media long overdue? Join our PROMISE colleague @evaziegltrum.bsky.social at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg on 26 June for an interactive discussion on social media regulation, platform design, and youth well-being. (1/2)

Greetings from #ICA26! During the event Team PROMISE: - Shared updates on WP2 scoping review of policy measures - Joined the pre-conference, "Children’s Rights Under Pressure in a Digital World" - Met with partners @sonialivingstone.bsky.social and @masurphil.bsky.social - Explored Cape Town

The Spring 2026 edition of the 3+3 Newsletter is out now (massmailer.univie.ac.at/action/mlr/p...). This issue covers: - Recent changes in European youth digital policy, - PROMISE at the CHANSE-Norface Conference, - The PhD & student researchers behind PROMISE (1/2)

🚨 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS 🚨 1/ We invite proposals for posters and symposia for the New Directions in Social Media Research conference at St John’s College, University of Cambridge (7–8 Dec 2026). We especially welcome future-facing research on how the social world is changing in the digital age.

New from @orbenamy.bsky.social on BOLD (Jacobs Foundation): “What is the recommended screen limit for young children - and why?” “Many parents feel they are making high-stakes decisions with very little clear guidance" A look at the evidence & its limits. 🔗 boldscience.org/whats-the-re...

Since January, Prof @orbenamy.bsky.social has given evidence to three UK Parliament select committees (Culture, Media & Sport; Science, Innovation & Technology; Education), helping bring research into policy debates on social media and young people. www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

On 8 April, the @coe.int adopted a new Recommendation on online safety & user empowerment (CM/Rec(2026)4). Notably, it places strong emphasis on young people’s rights, safety, and participation online. 📄 Full text: search.coe.int/cm#{%22CoEId... (1/3)

Great report by @orbenamy.bsky.social, @georgiaturner.bsky.social et al on the current evidence base of social media bans/reductions on adolescent mental heath.

UKgov publishes new screen time guidance for under 5s 👨‍🍼 <2s: Avoid screens except shared activities 👶 2-5s: Try for less than 1hr a day 📱 Choose safe, slow-paced content 🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Lead by example 🛌 Have screen-free areas/times Glad to have contributed. Parent guidance and research report linked below.

Austria's administration decided to implement a social media ban until age 14. www.derstandard.at/story/300000...

PROMISE at the Cambridge Festival! PhD researcher @georgiaturner.bsky.social recently presented her work at “Lonely Planet – Are We Experiencing a New Global Health Crisis?” (1/3)

„When lawyers for Kaley told Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, that her longest single day of use stretched to 16 hours, he denied that it was evidence of an addiction. Instead, he called a teenager spending most hours of the day on Instagram "problematic".“ www.bbc.com/news/article...

„the gen. office will seek additional financial penalties & court-mandated changes to Meta’s platforms that “offer stronger protections for children” s/a moving predators from the platform, & protecting minors from encrypted comm. that shield bad actors” [abbr] www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Los Angeles trial verdict also just in: Meta and Google found liable for negligence and designing addictive social media features www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Looking forward to presenting our research on digital technology use and wellbeing at this session today, free to attend if you're in Cambridge! www.festival.cam.ac.uk/events/lonel... @promiseproject.bsky.social

Meta ordered to pay 375 million after being found liable by a jury in New Mexico in one of the child exploitation cases for misleading consumers about the safety of their platforms. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Invitation to join the PROMISE Youth Advisory Board! We’re looking for young people (10–25 years old) from Austria, Estonia, Germany, Spain & the UK to contribute to research on digital well-being across Europe (1/3)

Today, I hosted the first meeting of a special panel on child safety online. For decades, we have made the real world safer for children and we must do the same in the digital world. The positive opportunities that technology offers cannot come at the cost of their safety, health or happiness.

Title: "Ban, Improve, or Ignore? Social Media Regulation From a Communication Research Perspective". Last week I gave my inaugural lecture at University of Zurich, @ikmz.bsky.social. Now online on YouTube.

Monday next week, 5 pm, I’ll deliver my UZH inaugural lecture. Title: „Ban, improve, or ignore? Social Media Regulation from a Communication Research Perspective“ The talk is open to the public: you can join either on-site or via live-stream. Details, see: www.uzh.ch/de/events/ag...

Our first issue of the PROMISE 3+3 Newsletter is out - a new way to follow our research on social media policies, and youth well-being! 1/4

Today, we presented the main results of the mental health days study 2025 (N = 8.177). Results > In May 2025, Austria implemented a nationwide smartphone-ban at schools > Compared to 2024, smartphone use went down by 30 mins > Life satisfaction went up (5.36 to 5.52) > Depression sank (15% to 12%)

Starting now: press conference where we present the Mental Health Days Study 2025. Livestream/rewatch: www.mentalhealthdays.eu

Happy New Year from Team PROMISE! ✨ As we step into 2026, we’re looking ahead to some key milestones. We’ll finalize our scoping review (WP1) - bringing together fragmented social media policy proposals and identifying evidence gaps across Europe and beyond. (1/3)

Welcome to Bluesky, @evaziegltrum.bsky.social 👋

🎉 The PROMISE project now has an official website! This is where we’ll be sharing updates on our research into social media, platform design, and youth well-being - plus news, team info, and open-access outputs as they’re released. 🔗 promiseproject.univie.ac.at

Curious about how smartphones shape children’s development? We’re recruiting a Postdoctoral Researcher for 3(+2) years for a cutting-edge randomized controlled trial conducted in collaboration with @orbenamy.bsky.social and her team. iwm-tuebingen.de/en/career/jo...

In the 2020 Election Project, Meta collaborated w/ academics to study how FB impacts elections. ⬇️ @aanixel.bsky.social, @fassiluisa.bsky.social & I argue that such research collaborations, w/ clear conflicts of interest, should be regulated. Would love to hear thoughts!💬 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

We just wrapped an energizing 2-day workshop in Nuremberg - the first in-person meeting of the full PROMISE team! Hosted by our colleagues at Friedrich-Alexander University, the meetup marked a first milestone in our 3-year international project. (1/4)

Starting our first workshop on theory with a view …

🚨 Big news from Brussels: The @europarl.europa.eu has voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution calling for a minimum age of 16 for access to social media: www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pres... (1/4)

This week, PROMISE outreach and policy impact coordinator Jen Adams from the Comms Policy Collaborative, attended #MozFest2025 where this year's theme was 'unlearning'. (1/3)

PROMISE is a collaborative initiative. Together with our partners, we are: - Connecting researchers, youth, policymakers, and civil society,

How can we contribute to social media policies that truly protect and empower young people? Our five Work Packages (WP) form the backbone of our research:

The PROMISE research initiative: where youth, well-being, policy, and data intersect. We study how social media policies can protect, empower, and support youth in today’s digital world. #PROMISEproject

On World Mental Health Day we’re launching PROMISE, a research project exploring youth well-being and social media policies. We aim to understand how these policies affect young people online and develop data-driven recommendations to support their well-being.