Last week, the Surgeon General’s office issued a warning that excessive screen use and the harm it’s doing to young people – linking it to growing rates of anxiety, depression, poor sleep and poor social relationships.
Recently we’ve seen lawmakers, schools and parents begin to tackle the issue and take on Big Tech. Countries are banning social media for kids under 16, states are passing age-verification laws, and more are restricting phones in classrooms.
Grassroots parent groups are also pushing to remove smartphones and AI from schools, driven over worries about privacy, distraction and safety. And the legal landscape has shifted too, after two juries held social media companies accountable for harming young users in landmark verdicts.
So on this month’s Big Fix — where we debate real solutions to big, thorny issues — we are asking: can we make technology safer and healthier for kids and teens? Do social media and phone bans actually work? And who should be responsible for setting the boundaries: government, schools, tech companies, parents or young people themselves?
We’ll dig into all this with our panel of experts and get their big fix ideas.
Guests:
Desmond Upton Patton, the Penn Integrates Knowledge professor at the University of Pennsylvania and founding director of the SAFELab. He’s also a member of the Children and Screens evidence council.
Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High Tech World.
Casey Mock, senior policy director of The Anxious Generation, a lecturer in applied ethics and tech policy at Duke University and author of the Substack newsletter Tomorrow’s Mess.
