Is social media safe for my autistic or ADHD teenager?

The short answer

No diagnosis makes social media automatically safe or unsafe. Assess the service, the features the teenager uses, what they gain from it, how they recognise risk and whether they can reach help. Check age eligibility using the teenager's real age. In the UK, under-16 access rules are changing: government guidance current in August 2026 says certain social media will be unavailable to under-16s from spring 2027, with details still to be implemented, while 16- and 17-year-olds will receive additional default restrictions. For current use, inspect who can discover and contact the account, whether messages become private, what the feed recommends, location and image sharing, livestreaming, spending, reporting and natural stopping points. Do not assume every autistic teenager is socially naive or every ADHD teenager is impulsive. Identify this young person's strengths and difficult decision points. Preserve safe friendship, identity and interest communities while reducing the feature that creates risk. Agree how the teenager can report a mistake without losing all contact, and act promptly on threats, sexual contact, exploitation or serious distress.

• Judge the service's features and the teenager's actual use, not the diagnosis or app name alone.
• Use the teenager's real age and check current UK eligibility because rules are changing.
• Review discoverability, contact, private messaging, feeds, location, livestreaming, spending and reporting.
• Preserve valuable friendship and identity support while reducing the feature creating harm.
• Make disclosure safer than secrecy and use the correct reporting route when harm occurs.