Alexis Spence started using social media when she was eleven and soon developed a social-media addiction, which led in turn to her struggles with anorexia, self-harm, and thoughts of suicide over several years. Just last month a lawsuit was filed against Meta on her behalf, alleging that Instagram’s artificial-intelligence engine steered the then fifth-grader into an echo chamber of content glorifying anorexia and self-cutting, and systematically fostered her addiction to using the app. Her story is not unique and in fact represents just one tragic example of social-media harms to children that are too numerous to count. These harms have rightly led some commentators to call for banning minors entirely from social media.
Parents in prior generations mainly had to worry about threats to their children from outside the home, like school bullies or the lures of tobacco, alcohol, or other substances. But now the biggest threats are inside our homes, entering through screens. The rise of smartphones and the unending access to social-media platforms they afford are a primary source of danger to children today.
Comments