Mark Zuckerberg turned toward a group of grieving parents recently and issued a public apology. “I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through,” he said. “No one should go through what you and your families have suffered.”
His latest admission at the Senate online child safety hearing was not the first time Zuckerberg has apologized. But for parents eager to see someone take responsibility for social media harms, it might have hit differently. Caregivers are tired of alarming headlines, managing parental controls and default settings, and watching their teens struggle to navigate a digital world that wasn’t built to benefit them.
Aside from the emotional gravity of this exchange, though, what are we to make of the back-and-forth between members of Congress and the world’s top tech executives and the current patchwork of state-level solutions?
Kids using smartphones Source: Kerkez / Canva We have an opportunity to move forward with adolescent needs and development in mind. However, doing so will require that we hold these three truths at the same time:
1. We don’t have to wait for scientific proof that social media is the primary driver of the youth mental health crisis to create a safer and healthier internet.
Waiting for scientific consensus that social media is the one and the only cause of the adolescent mental health crisis before taking action isn’t necessary or even possible. Tech companies can no longer ignore the needs and vulnerabilities of their youngest users. Design features that nudge teens towards extreme content, encourage compulsive behavior, capture private data, and allow unknown contact are at odds with their developmental needs. We have a track record of employing a “do no harm” approach in industries including food safety, road safety, and consumer protection. We don’t need proof that all platforms are toxic to all teens to prioritize safe and age-appropriate design.
2. We do need to take into account the complexity of social media’s impacts to craft good policies and better support teens.
We can improve the internet without treating tech as an inherently toxic force. Individual mental health outcomes are shaped by young people’s unique vulnerabilities and strengths, digital activities, platform design, and access to resources and support. Digging into complexity helps us shape:
Better Policy. For example, the most vulnerable adolescents are more likely than their peers to experience harm on social media and also more likely to benefit from the support they find there. This is especially true for LGBTQ+ teens and other underrepresented groups. This is why outright bans are likely to backfire and why content neutral and design focused policies like the Minnesota Kids Code are a better fit. This prevents lawmakers from using youth as a political football in the cultural debate over what is deemed “appropriate” for children or cutting them off from much-needed information and support.
Better Support. If technology always and only harmed young people, then restrictive strategies alone would make sense. Instead, the research invites us to turn toward the teens in our lives. Open, curious, and non-judgemental questions help us better discern whether kids’ digital activities are helping or hurting. Young people need us to do more than protect them from harm. They also need us to see their strengths and help them build skills for digital thriving.
3. We need collective solutions that address more than social media if we care about adolescent mental health.
No matter which way you slice the data, the kids aren’t alright. But let’s not assume that solving this crisis is as simple as banning TikTok or setting age restrictions on social platforms. We can’t afford to ignore other known drivers of mental health outcomes. This includes poverty, racism, pressure, and inequitable access to mental healthcare. Let’s bring the same level of bipartisan support and public pressure to target the social determinants of mental health and invest in our mental healthcare system.
This could be a turning point in the movement to create a better internet. But this moment demands that we move forward holding multiple truths about tech and teens at the same time. Our kids’ mental health and well-being depends on it.