Last week, 33 US states launched a federal lawsuit against Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram. Another nine states launched similar suits in state courts.
The federal lawsuit claims Meta used “psychologically manipulative product features” on its social media platforms to “induce young users’ compulsive and extended platform use.” It claims Meta did this while “falsely assuring the public that its features were safe and suitable for young users.”
In short, they’re arguing Facebook and Instagram are both addictive and bad for kids.
Ottawa and the provinces would do well to take note. The harms that the US states are seeking to address are ones that Canada ought to be tackling as well.
There is mounting evidence that Meta’s platforms — and possibly other social media platforms as well — are harmful to young people.
Jonathan Haidt, a New York University professor and psychologist best known for his book The Coddling of the American Mind, is a leading researcher in this area. He has published numerous studies tracking the sharp escalation in health problems in youth since social media platforms became ubiquitous around 2010.
Major depression, incidents of self-inflicted injuries, loneliness have all spiked.
“The link between social media use and mental illness varies by age and sex,” Haidt said in testimony to the US Senate Judiciary Committee in 2022. “For girls, it is largest between the ages of 11 and 13 — the years when they are in early puberty.”
“The patterns are nearly identical in the UK and Canada,” he said.
In May of this year, the US Surgeon General, the country’s top medical officer, issued an advisory warning of the “ample indicators” that social media poses a “risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”
The advisory points to research that shows adolescents who spend more than three hours per day on social media “face double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes, such as symptoms of depression and anxiety.” They can also experience disordered eating behaviours, social comparison and low self-esteem.
Of course, social media has benefits as well. The magic of social media is that you can connect with anyone, anywhere and easily remain in contact for decades. You can discover information that you would never otherwise find. You can promote a cause or business and make money and even careers off of it, as many young people now do.
Social media thus falls in the same camp as other products that have both benefits and ills. Alcohol and cannabis come to mind.
The government should take a similar approach to regulating social media as it does to these substances: age-gate them.
It should place an onus on platforms to not permit children below a certain age, perhaps 13, to create social media accounts at all. To make this measure meaningful, social media platforms will need to face serious consequences for failing to enforce them. By acting, Canada would join countries as diverse as the UK and China in taking steps to limit young people’s activity on social media and platforms’ use of their data.
Yes, some kids will find ways to circumvent the rules. Perhaps they’ll log in using the accounts of parents or siblings, or use fake IDs to set up accounts.
But this possibility does not undermine the case for age-gating in the first place. No different than how we do not contemplate getting rid of age limits for alcohol purchases when teenagers find ways to buy beer.
A second, more complex requirement would be to require social media platforms to limit the amount of time that teenagers can spend on any one platform in a day.
The amount of time is significant because, as Haidt noted in his Senate testimony, “as usage rises to three or four hours a day, the increases in mental illness often become quite sharp.” A 2021 US survey found that, on average, teenagers spend 3.5 hours a day on social media.
If anyone can figure out how to implement time limits on social media usage, it’s social media platforms, which have vast resources and data capabilities.
Parents and educators too often feel helpless to limit kids’ social media use. They fear being the only one to limit a child’s time on a platform, thereby depriving them of access to a popular social arena. But all children would benefit from these limits.
This is a classic collective action problem that requires an outside party with a big stick. In short, the government.
Ottawa, we know, is not afraid to take on big tech. In recent years, it has passed both the Online Streaming Act and Online News Act. Unfortunately, though, it picked the wrong fights.
With social media, the harms are clear. This is an area where the government must act.
!!! SMARTPHONE DISEASE ALERT !!!
Social media accessibility is extremely hazardous and may will cause depression, anxiety, and in some unfortunate instances— suicide— in children under the age of 18
Many adults already have the disease and don’t know it, or refuse to admit it, and should know better
Farcebook
Tik Tak
BS (formerly known as Twatter)
Crapchat
Any and ALL others
C’MON PARENTS— Wake your children UP—Put your foot DOWN–Champion through the withdrawal and help stop the insanity !!!
NOT ALL DANGERS COME WITH WARNING LABELS
At the very least, social media should be banned for children under the age of 18
Look up and around, pay attention, no matter where you go, you will see how this disease has infected our population.
I believe you cannot tell your children to stay off social media while you cannot stay off yours.
Both my parents smoked, and told us repeatedly not to smoke, wellll of course we smoked.
HOWEVER, as an adult I made a choice to keep smoking—– good, bad, or otherwise.
I do not want to catch this smartphone disease, so I do not have a smartphone, and never will. I am somewhat offended by the fact soon we will not be able to “exist” without a portable electronic device.
I do NOT go into PANIC mode when I misplace my dinosaur flip phone.
Ban Social Media in Alberta, at least for under 18—-call or email your MLA, your MP, or better yet, Premier Smith’s office
Signed: A 65 year old concerned grandfather who does not want his grandchildren to grow up diseased by peer pressure as soon as they start to socialize !!!! When they are old enough, they can make their own choices.
Hi There
I grew up on a grain farm in nowhere Saskatchewan.
I currently live in Sylvan Lake, Alberta. Have been around Sylvan since 1989ish.
I am 65 years old and concerned about the fate of my grandchildren.
The world seems to be “going to hell in a handbasket” as “they” used to say.
My previous post, I made posters 81/2 X 11, colorful, and posted them up around town.
I also talked to many random people who all agreed with the fact that social media should be banned for children under the age of 18. When they become adults they can make their own choices.
All that agreed seemed to have the same apathetic response “oh well, what are you gonna do ?” WELL —– I have to try something, and I just this morning found your website. Good to know things are getting started.
How can I help ramp up this issue ???
For me I would volunteer my free time to this, I feel this is an issue folks should be more than willing to help out when and where they can.
Thank you for starting this website.
Let me know, I am quite ready, willing, and able to HELP STOP THE INSANITY !!!