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By now, it has become a fairly accepted narrative that extensive social media usage can cause a range of dangerous mental, emotional, and psychological effects, especially in very young users. This is an argument that has been picked up by politicians and regulators as they argue for safer social media experiences for kids.
And, as you might imagine, Mark Zuckerberg continues to make the case that the big social media platforms are not to blame for everything from teen depression to cyberbullying (and even worse). As he sees it, it is close to impossible to prove causality between using Facebook and these negative effects. And, as he notes, there are plenty of positive impacts of using social media, so it might really be a case of the positive impacts canceling out the negative impacts.
New parental tools to the rescue?
With that in mind, Zuckerberg is now making the rounds, arguing that new parental tools are the answer. Let the kids use Facebook and Instagram, but make parents use all the new tools available to curtail usage activity. On one hand, of course, this looks like a pretty transparent attempt by the Silicon Valley CEO to distance himself from all the legal and regulatory issues hanging over his company.
On the other hand, what if he really does have a point? After all, when it comes to social media, parents have been strangely absent until recently. Think of it from the perspective of your kids learning to drive a car. Would you hand over the keys to your car before seeing your young teen at least take it for a spin around the block? Wouldn’t you require them to pass some sort of driving test, or maybe to take a driver safety course?
And, yet, when it comes to social media, parents don’t demand anything of their kids. At times, in fact, they let their teens sign up for a social media service, knowing full well that they aren’t officially old enough. To use Instagram, for example, you’re supposed to be at least 13. But we’re now hearing about kids in grade school and even elementary school who use Instagram. So, maybe, just maybe, parents do have to accept some of the blame.
Time to blame the app stores?
And there’s another argument that Zuckerberg is making these days. He’s saying that it’s the app store owners – especially Google and Apple – that are to blame, not the social media platforms. As he sees it, the app stores should be doing all the checking, verifying, and age-gating. They are the ones, he says, that parents should be harassing right now.
The problem here is that overwhelming evidence continues to mount against Facebook. In 2021, the release of the so-called “Facebook Papers” detailed how Facebook knew all about the negative impacts on kids, and did nothing about it. And there have been plenty of high-profile whistleblowers who have spilled the beans on Facebook, detailing how knowledge of these problems went all the way up to the highest echelons of the company.
Zuckerberg himself has been grilled in front of Congress, and he’s probably tired of trying to deflect the same argument, over and over again. He’s getting more creative each time, trying to come up with a golden loophole that he can use to escape. Thus, it’s up to us to stop him, and hold Facebook fully accountable for the harm it is causing our nation’s youth.
