Online safety advocates hope landmark trial verdicts this week can bring change to social media platforms they have warned about for years, after juries found Meta (and YouTube in one case) responsible for harms to kids and teens.
“We’ve been telling our stories forever and people say, ‘Oh, that’s horrible,’ but we haven’t seen any action,” Julianna Arnold told CNN’s Elex Michaelson on Thursday. Arnold founded the advocacy organization Parents RISE! following the death of her daughter Coco, for which she blames Instagram. “Now we have the proof to back up and validate the stories we’ve been telling.”
The trials represented the first times legal panels of regular Americans passed judgment on the safety of social media for young people, and they saw enough to concern them.
A New Mexico jury on Wednesday found Meta liable in a case accusing it of creating a “breeding ground” for child predators. A day later, a California jury found Meta and YouTube knowingly designed addictive platforms, failed to warn parents and users of the risks and harmed a young woman’s mental health.
Though the damages awarded in each case were tiny compared to Meta and Google’s valuations, the companies face hundreds more cases; repeated losses could lead to billions in penalties and required changes to their platforms.
Meta and Google said they plan to appeal.
“Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”
The Los Angeles case “misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said.
Social platforms also contend they’ve already invested heavily in safety measures and features, such as parental oversight tools, “take a break” reminders and default privacy settings and content restrictions for teens.
Here’s what more online safety advocates would like to see the social media platforms change.
Frequent nudges and notifications
Kaley, the plaintiff in the Los Angeles trial, testified that she once turned off YouTube notifications but quickly felt she could be missing out on what people were saying about her.
“I wanted to see what people were saying or who was liking my video,” she said.
Some platforms, including YouTube, have already added “bedtime” limits on notifications and control tools for parents to limit the time their kids spend on the apps. But advocates say they’d like to do away entirely with those little nudges that encourage frequent use — at least for young users.
“That includes Snapchat’s ‘Snap Streak,’” Nicki Petrossi, host of the podcast Scrolling 2 Death. That Snapchat feature gives users a score that grows every day they exchange a message or photo with friends but returns to zero if they break the streak. “All of these different little functions do a lot to keep kids coming back every day.”
Snapchat previously told CNN in a statement that “the safety and well-being of our community is a top priority” and that the company has built safeguards “that support the safety, privacy, and well-being of all Snapchatters.” (Snap was a defendant in the LA suit but settled before trial.)
Algorithms, endless scroll and autoplay
Experts have also called on the social media companies to share more information about the data that they collect on users and how that guides their content recommendations.
“We need to know more about what the algorithms are doing,” social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of “The Anxious Generation,” told CNN.
Videos that automatically start playing as soon as a user opens an app like Instagram or TikTok can also suck in users as soon as they open the platform, Haidt said. The feature has been cited in Kaley’s and other lawsuits.
“Autoplay seems to make things super addictive,” he said.
Some parents and advocates say they wish users’ feeds would simply end at some point, instead of allowing endless scrolling through algorithm-promoted content.
“I think that there is a way to design social media that is so different from anything that we’re all experiencing now,” said Sarah Gardner, founder and CEO of the advocacy organization Heat Initiative. “It really actually models Facebook (around) 2008 where were just using it as almost a messaging board to connect with people locally to go out and do things.”
Federal regulation
Arnold said Wednesday she’s already looking forward to returning to Capitol Hill to push for more comprehensive online safety legislation — something lawmakers have talked about for years but haven’t passed.
“We would like to see legislation passed that forces these companies to design their products with a duty of care to keep our kids safe, like we do with all the other products we have in this country,” Arnold said.
Julianna Arnold and Lori Schott, who say their daughters died because of social media, speak outside the courthouse after a jury found Meta and Google liable in a landmark social media addiction case.Mike Blake/Reuters
Senators Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, have pushed a bill called the Kids Online Safety Act. It would require platforms to exercise “reasonable care” to prevent harms such as mental health disorders, and to protect minors’ data and offer parental control tools. Some critics have raised privacy and free expression concerns, and this year lawmakers have been at odds after House Republicans introduced a version of the bill with fewer protections.
“This verdict is the beginning of real justice for parents across the country that have suffered and faced heartbreaking loss from Big Tech’s greed,” Blumenthal said in a statement Wednesday.
Some advocates would like to see American lawmakers follow Australia’s lead in restricting access to social media for kids under the age of 16, although others say age verification raises privacy concerns.
“If you listen to young people and parents, they’ll tell you the status quo doesn’t work,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of watchdog group the Tech Oversight Project.
‘Now we have the proof’: Safety advocates hope a landmark jury ruling could lead to social media changes Egypt Independent.
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