March 3, 2023, 5:30 a.m. ET
A perfect storm.
This was the phrase that internal researchers at Meta used to describe the effect that their platform, Instagram, is having on the mental and physical health of teenagers.
As a mother, I understand the damage this storm can cause all too well. On June 23, 2020, my husband, Tom, and I awoke to the unimaginable horror that our 16-year-old son had hung himself in our garage while we slept. He was a victim of anonymous cyberbullying – subject to harassing and humiliating messages from his high school classmate tormentors who were able to hide their identities on social media platforms.
Unfortunately, as a letter last year from dozens of parents like me showed, Carson is not alone. Social media has become the dominant social and communications tool, especially for preteens and teens who have grown up with these platforms as a constant fixture of their lives. As of 2021, 62% of 13- to 18-year-olds use these platforms every day.
This rise of social media has driven previously stagnant rates of adolescent depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide through the roof. From 2007 to 2018, rates of suicide among those ages 10-24 increased nearly 60%.
Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among those ages 15-24 in the United States.
As I recently shared in testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, these trends aren’t coincidences, accidents or unforeseen consequences – they are a direct result of products that are designed to addict and monetize America’s children.
When teens are the real social media ‘products’
Social media platforms are free because users like Carson are the real product. Every post, button and nudge is designed to capture our attention, harvest our data and sell it to the highest bidder.
Preteens and teens are at a stage in their social and physical development that makes them especially susceptible to addictive features and persuasive content. The platforms know this, and instead of taking steps to protect these users, they have doubled down on sophisticated algorithms that monitor and predict our children’s behavior for the sole purpose of keeping them glued to the screen.
President Joe Biden was right when he called on Congress during this year’s State of the Union address to “hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit,” a line that brought both Republicans and Democrats to their feet.
For more than a decade, Congress has sat by and let Big Tech run wild. The last comprehensive legislation governing kids’ safety online passed in 1996, when we couldn’t even begin to imagine technology as pervasive or powerful as social media.
We can’t wait any longer. Congress must establish a nationwide, legal responsibility for social media companies to affirmatively protect and prioritize the well-being of children on their platforms. Applause isn’t enough – it’s time to get the job done.
The Big Tech companies say such a framework isn’t possible, is overbearing or would hurt innovation. But throughout history, Congress has taken steps to balance the promise and perils of a powerful new technology:
- After the industrial revolution, Congress passed child labor laws to ensure that children wouldn’t be exploited for their labor.
- The rise of the pharmaceutical industry was accompanied by the development of quality control measures and the expansion of the Food and Drug Administration.
- When cars began to take over the roads, Congress established standards that would guarantee the safety of these powerful devices – additional licensing and seat belt laws followed later.
Today, none of these guardrails apply to social media platforms. This is unacceptable, and for families like mine, this negligence has had catastrophic consequences.
Action to protect kids online has stalled in Congress
In the wake of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s 2021 testimony, I was hopeful that Congress might finally take action.
Bipartisan bills such as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, and American Data Privacy and Protection Act would have made meaningful changes to protect children from addiction and exploitation online.
KOSA came from the unlikely duo of Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and passed out of committee with overwhelming bipartisan support. But since then, action to protect kids online has stalled in the face of lobbying and scare tactics by the platforms. All the speeches, hearings and bills have resulted in no additional safeguards for users or responsibilities for the social media platforms.
I won’t stop fighting.
In 2021, the Oregon Legislature passed “Carson’s Law” to require school districts to report incidents of bullying to the parents of both the victim and the aggressor. That same year, I filed a national class action lawsuit against the anonymous messaging apps that led to Carson’s death, and I believe this advocacy contributed to these anonymous apps being banned from Snapchat.
But for every Carson, there is another child who dies from other social media harms such as dangerous online challenges fed to them on TikTok, sextortion over Facebook, fentanyl-laced drugs purchased over Snapchat and eating disorder content over Instagram.
Grieving parents like me cannot continue to fight back one case, one issue or one platform at a time. We need our lawmakers to put politics aside and finally pass federal legislation to protect all American children online.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline that provides confidential 24/7 support by dialing 988, or visit 988lifeline.org
Kristin Bride is a member of Issue One’s Council for Responsible Social Media.
