This is such a toughie. There is so much research coming out that's demonstrating the horrendous impact social media is having on teen's mental health. At the

This is such a toughie. There is so much research coming out that's demonstrating the horrendous impact social media is having on teen's mental health. At the same time, I'm a firm believer it's important to give teens their freedom and autonomy. That said, would you let your kids smoke cigarettes, do drugs, drink a lot of alcohol? Can we reliably say that social media isn't as bad or worse? I think one problem that we are all backtracking post-Covid. so many parents who never wanted their kids to go online were forced to do that during the pandemic because it was the only way for them to learn and socialize. So how do we say, it was ok before, but it's not Ok now. We recognize we let you do this before, but now we're setting a limit for xyz reason. One thing you may want to remember is that boundaries are love. So if you really feel that this is endangering your child and you feel equipped to set a healthy boundary, than go ahead and by all means do it! You say "I wouldn't want my child to feel disconnected from their peers," but I have some serious doubts as to whether social media actually really makes us more connected. Aren't they going to be more connected to their peer if they go on a hike together as opposed to send each other Tik Tok videos of people doing a shit on the wall challenge? Ultimately, social media is addictive and I think things that cause addiction go in a special category. First of all, I'd research as much as you can about the impact of social media and share this in detail with your teen. Ask them how they feel about healthy limits and explore together what these limits could be. I'd also consider bringing other parents in on the limit setting. Maybe you could suggest that your PTA host a meeting about this. If all the parents ban together, than it will be less of something that only YOUR teen can do. Perhaps I'm old-fashioned but I do believe that knowledge is power and the more knowledge you can share and explore together with your teen together, the better. Last not least, if you limit your teens social media usage, you should limit your own as well. It's not fair to ask them to do something you are not doing yourself. I am going to write more on this topic because it's a huge one and is impacting all parents with teens (video games too by the way)