<
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/01/08/leading-save-the-kids-advocate-pushing-absolutely-dangerous-protect-the-california-ballot-initiative-that-will-do-real-harm-to-children/>
"Over the last few years we’ve pointed out time and time again that the
evidence regarding the supposed “harm” of social media to teen mental health
just isn’t supported by the data. But it seems it’s never enough to stop
savior-complex folks in the media, the advocacy community, and the political
class from insisting it must be true. I know I just pointed this out a few days
ago, but because people seem to keep missing it, let’s do it again:
* In the fall of 2022, the widely respected Pew Research Center did a massive
study on kids and the internet, and found that for a majority of teens, social
media was way more helpful than harmful.
* In May of 2023, the American Psychological Association (which has fallen for
tech moral panics in the past, such as with video games) released a huge,
incredibly detailed, and nuanced report going through all of the evidence, and
finding no causal link between social media and harms to teens.
* Soon after that, the US Surgeon General came out with a report which was
misrepresented widely in the press. Yet, the details of that report also showed
that no causal link could be found between social media and harms to teens. It
did still recommend that we act as if there were a link, which was weird and
explains the media coverage, but the actual report highlights no causal link,
while also pointing out how much benefit teens receive from social media).
* A few months later, an Oxford University study came out covering nearly a
million people across 72 countries, noting that it could find no evidence of
social media leading to psychological harm.
* The
Journal of Pediatrics published a new study in the fall of 2023 again
noting that after looking through decades of research, the mental health
epidemic faced among young people appears largely due to the lack of open
spaces where kids can be kids without parents hovering over them. That report
notes that they explored the idea that social media was a part of the problem,
but could find no data to support that claim.
* In November of 2023, Oxford University published yet another study, this one
focused specifically on screen time, and if increased screen time was found to
be damaging to kids, and found no data to support that contention.
And now we’ve got Jim Steyer, who has more money and ignorance than sense,
trying to quietly push a California ballot initiative that would adjust the
California constitution in an unconstitutional (by the US Constitution) manner
to falsely claim that social media is
deliberately harmful to kids, and that
people should be able to sue social media for a million dollars any time any
kid anywhere is “harmed” in a manner on social media that the social media
company should have magically stopped."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
