You asked
I am looking for statistics which show the amount of children with anxiety or depression between ages 12-17 over 2015-2017; and if there has been an increase in mental health issues in young children following the rise of Instagram.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We do not hold specific statistics on the types of social media (such as Instagram) used by children and young people. With regards the rates of anxiety or depression for 12-17 year olds between 2015-2017, you may be interested to review the Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey, published by NHS Digital: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2017/2017.
Specifically, the:
“Emotional Disorders” report includes statistics on the rates of emotional disorders (such as anxiety and depression) for 5 to 19 year olds in England in 2017.
“Trends and characteristics” report shows the trends of emotional disorders for 5 to 15 year olds in England between 1999, 2004 and 2017.
“Behaviours, lifestyles and identity” report presents high level statistics on social media use and their relationship with mental disorders for 11 to 19 year olds in England in 2017.
We published an article in 2015 covering “Children's mental ill-health by time spent on social networking sites, UK, 2013 to 2014: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/adhocs/006721childrensmentalillhealthbytimespentonsocialnetworkingsitesuk2013to2014
We also publish measures of Children’s Well-being, which includes information on “symptoms of mental ill-health” for children aged 10-15 year olds (UK). The latest release can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/datasets/childrenswellbeingmeasures
If you require further information, you can approach NHS Digital for England, the Information Services Division of NHS Scotland, NHS Wales and the Department of Health for Northern Ireland.