Social Media Harms
2022 in Online Harms Prevention
One Person’s Story Can Have A Big Impact
This article highlights the activities of people who understood social media’s downsides and took action to prevent them. They persevered despite derision from academic and technology circles who implied that their concept of harms resulting from online activities were “overblown concerns..that lacked evidence.” Highly publicized academic studies published in 2022 discounted the negative mental health effects of social media use. COIVD era meta-analysis studies concluded there were insufficient data to show harms and stated that more studies were needed. And despite this pushback, these people continued on.
@davidjay, now the CEO of Relationality Lab, then the Chief Mobilization Officer for the Center for Humane Technology, introduced me to Kristin Bride (Cyberbullying Prevention Activist and truly a “Remarkable Woman.”) and the Screentime Action Network (SAN).
SAN is a community of educators, parents, health care professionals, and other individuals concerned about the effects of all screen-related activities on the mental and physical development of children and teens. It is a project of Fairplay, a 20+ year-old not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping children avoid the negative consequences of screen activities and the influence of marketing on children’s development.
Both Fairplay and the SAN are funded by individual donors and foundations that do not profit from children’s screen time activities. Neither accept corporate donations and both are fiscally sponsored by TSNE, a 60 year-old organization that provides management support to not for profit organizations, foundations, networks and coalitions in the areas of finance, compliance, human resources, and insurance.
In 2022, I joined SAN’s Online Harms Prevention Work Group (OHP). The work this group accomplished (19 members when I joined in March 2022) in one year is truly astounding. Co-Chairpersons Joann Bogard and Lisa Honold provided a recap of the 2022 Online Harms Prevention Work Group’s accomplishments:
- Advocated for the passage of the Kids Online Safety Act and a 2022 update to the Children and Teens Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) by:
-Coordinating with Fairplay to advocate in person on Capitol Hill for KOSA and COPPA 2.0 in December 2022
-Writing Op Eds that were published by media outlets
-Coordinating visits with elected officials
-Coordinating letter writing and calling campaigns
- Advocated for the passage of the California Age Appropriate Design Code Act (AB 2273) by speaking with CEOs of social media companies and California legislators.
- Influenced the 2022 State of the Union Address through a campaign created by the Parents Together Foundation to advocate for children and teens online safety regulation.
- Manhattanville College Professor, Joni Siani producer of the "No App for Life with Joni Siani" podcast, introduced the series, The H A R M S - Unthinkable Stories Big Tech Doesn't Want to Tell in March 2022 featuring the stories of Carson Bride (Kristin Bride-Cyberbullying), Mason Bogard (Joann Bogard (Dangerous Online Challenges), Erik Robinson (Judy Rogg – Dangerous Online Challenges) and Becca Schmill (Deb Schmill-Online Illegal Drug Activities). These parents shared the deadly effects social media had on their children, resulting in tragedy.
- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control included online use questions proposed by OPH members in its Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
- Created the “Action Hero Awards” and voted to give awards to to Lush, Senators Blumenthal & Blackburn, Minnesota State Senator Chamberlain; Minnesota State Representative Morrison and California Assembly Members Jordan Cunningham and Buffy Wicks.
Other OHP members have forged ahead with their own projects and messaging. Ian Russell, of the Molly Rose Foundation, whose daughter, Molly, died by suicide, advocated for the North London coroner to conduct an inquest into his daughter’s death. The coroner asked for input from Pinterest and Instagram to provide documentation of Molly’s online activities for a period up to six months before she died. Pinterest and Instagram delayed providing that information to the coroner for five years. The North London coroner concluded that Pinterest and Instagram activity in the months before her death “contributed more than minimally” to the mental state that caused her to take her life. Molly’s story highlighted the risks of online activity on teenagers mental health and will hopefully spur regulation to make online services safer for teens.
Deb and Stu Schmill of the Becca Schmill Foundation and Eric Feinberg, VP of Content Moderation at the Coalition for a Safer Web were featured on NBC’s Today show segment, “Drug Dealers Use Social Media to Sell to Teens in Between Ads for Major Companies.” This story highlighted recent trends of illegal drugs being sold through social media platforms using emojis and coded terms to evade detection by parents, school officials and other concerned adults.
As for my projects, the Social Media Harms (SMH) website now lists over 120 peer-reviewed, academic studies that document the mental health harms caused by social media and other online platform use. SMH went live in Feb 2021; views increased from 20 per month in March 2021 to over 300 views per month by users in 66 countries in December 2022.
I met with Senator Raphael Warnock’s staff in July 2022, and the Senator voted to approve KOSA to move this legislation forward out of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and on to the entire Senate for debate. I am truly grateful for his support for this important bill.
Dr. Amanda Giordano, Associate Professor, Department of Counseling and Human Development Services, helped by graciously providing her time and expertise. To learn more about addiction in adolescents, check out her book, A Clinical Guide to Treating Behavioral Disorders, or one of her many peer-reviewed research articles.
Matt Bergman of the Social Media Victims Law Center provided invaluable expertise and has provided information to senate staffers and to the rest of the world about the harms inflicted upon teens and children by social media. Check out his December 11, 2022 interview on 60 Minutes.
2022 has taught me that one person can make a difference even in this complex, short-attention span world.
Shout outs to Ben Whitelaw, who produces the Everything in Moderation newsletter that provides so many of the references for Social Media Harms; @CoryDoctorow for his terrific article regarding Creative Commons licenses; and Jaron Lanier, who so eloquently outlined “10 Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now”- I deleted my Facebook, Instagram, Twitter accounts and used that time to create both the Social Media Harms website and Social Media Harms Medium publication. Unfortunately, all of the arguments Jaron made in 2018 still hold true.
May we all have the fortitude to continue working on resolving the harms created by social media use, either through platform redesign or governmental regulation, in 2023.
Social Media Harms provides a listing of peer-reviewed studies, scholarly books, and articles from organizations that adhere to journalistic standards that document the negative effects of social media use. The site also lists links to organizations dedicated to reducing the harms created by social media platforms and other online services. SMH does not solicit donations, however, we are asking for additions to our lists of peer reviewed studies and authoritative books and articles.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
