Social media ranks alongside smoking as a danger to children, senior UK doctors said, as they urged politicians to tackle the harm that they say excessive screen time is causing to young people.
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges detailed the impact of social media on children in a submission to the government's consultation on protecting children online, which closes today.
"It ranks alongside smoking and wearing seatbelts in cars as a unifying force for the medical profession," said the body, which represents the UK and Ireland's 23 royal medical colleges and faculties.
Adding: "There can be few issues which have united clinicians so resoundingly in recent years as the impact that unfettered exposure to tech and devices is currently having on children and young people's health."
More than half of 132 doctors surveyed saw at least one case of health harm that could be related to tech and devices every week, and over one-third saw evidence of harm multiple times a week, it said.
Harms ranged from physical injuries, for example caused by replicating acts of extreme pornography, to mental health impacts, such as trauma from seeing violence online.
The UK is consulting on restricting children's access to social media, including a possible ban for under-16s, as well as curfews, app time limits and curbs on what it has described as addictive design features.
Australia last year became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, with European countries considering similar measures.
Earlier this month, an Oireachtas Committee that examined the regulation of online platforms and online safety has not supported a ban on access for under 16s to social media platforms.
Minister for Communications Patrick O'Donovan has repeatedly said he will introduce a ban on under 16s getting on social media and is working on that plan at the moment.
Britain's online safety law requires social media companies to take measures to protect children from illegal and harmful online content, but the government has committed to going further.
"The question isn't whether we are going to act; we will, whether that is a ban on social media for the under-16s or restrictions on key features and functions," Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told BBC News.
Hundreds of UK families are testing social media bans, curfews and app time limits to see how they impact children's sleep, family life and schoolwork.
Experts are divided on how effective a total ban would be, while a group of young people in London recently said they were opposed to restrictions.
Read more: Social media ban for children would be 'quickly' evaded
