Olly

Social media harms exposed

Anyone with kids - teenagers in particular - will have probably encountered the social media battle. If the kids have a smartphone (and the chances are they do), only the most militant or draconian parents will be able to prevent them accessing social media. You can try and nurture self-control or abstinence (good luck), but peer pressure and FOMO are likely to win out. 

Some parents are laissez-faire about it all, and maybe they’re right, but despite appearances every young person is unique and they’ll all react differently when served the infinite social scroll. 

I read this article by Jon Haidt (“TikTok Is Harming Children at an Industrial Scale”) which distills evidence from the research of 14 Attorney Generals who were tasked with determining whether the US should ban TikTok. However you look at it, it’s disturbing. Here are the headings of each “cluster of harm”:
  1. Addictive, compulsive, and problematic use
  2. Depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia, self-harm, and suicide
  3. Porn, violence, and drugs
  4. Sextortion, CSAM, and sexual exploitation
  5. TikTok knows about underage use and takes little action
We don’t know how this will end, but surely something must be done? TikTok may eventually get banned in the US, but there’s still Instagram, Snapchat, X, RedNote, YouTube Shorts… and probably plenty of others I’ve yet to hear about because I’m old and clueless. 

Educating ourselves and increasing awareness of these studies, then trying to have conversations with our children is a good place to start, but it feels to me like the endgame can only be regulation of some sort. 

Good luck!