Social Media Addiction

Social media provides many benefits which include information sharing, networking, and e-commerce. However, social media addiction, one aspect of social media’s detrimental side, is a serious problem. Parents, educators, and medical professionals have expressed concern about the impact of social media on adolescent health and well-being. This article will discuss social media addiction and the current events underway to address these concerns.

According to Pew Research Center the report on excessive use of the internet and addictive behaviors states that 35% of teens are using social media “almost constantly.” Other study findings include: 76% of teens have access to smartphone apps and 97% of teens report that they use social media daily. The research concludes that the addiction occurs because of the brain’s reward system. The reward takes the form of a dopamine “hit” when the user finds or sees the desired content. The dangers happen because targeted algorithms feed content to viewers based on their search history. However, the information can be potentially harmful and often not what the person was looking for. For example, a person may be looking for a healthy fitness routine and finds information on restrictive eating. Excessive use develops when the viewer continues the search, find, hit cycle repeatedly over an extended period.

A federal class-action lawsuit has been filed in the Northern District of California, Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 3047), according to Axios Pro: Tech Policy author Ashley Gold (Gold, January 2023.) The lawsuit combines hundreds of cases alleging that apps are products that cause harm. The critical question in this case is whether apps are products and if they are, can the corporations be held liable for their product designs? The lawsuits are personal injury product liability cases and claim that the corporations knew in advance that the social media platforms could cause addictive behaviors. Parents reported that their children were excessive users of the platform and that it caused or contributed to their harm. An employee of Facebook - later identified as a whistleblower, Frances Haugen, provided tens of thousands of Facebook's internal documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission and The Wall Street Journal in 2021 showing that the corporation knew well in advance that its products could cause harm to individuals and society.

Next, attorney Matt Bergman founded The Social Media Victims’ Law Center (Center) as a legal resource for parents of children and teenage victims harmed by social media addiction after filing several wrongful death lawsuits against Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta corporations. The Center provides resources, support, and representation to families and individuals seeking compensation and settlements for harm caused by social media products (platforms and apps.) Another critical effort of the Center is to hold corporations accountable on the minimum age requirement under Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), a federal law. NPR reports, that “Federal law states that a social media corporation must not open an account for children aged thirteen and under without parental consent. Yet, no parental consent form or other verification exists before opening the account” There is no control to prevent an individual from answering yes to whether you are 14 or older. Unlike other addictive products such as alcohol or nicotine, there is no legal consequence – it is not monitored or policed in any manner.

???????????Lastly the social media corporations are providing safety tools. Meta Corporation formed the Safety Center and released a statement vowing to keep youth safe online. Citing that, they proactively identified and removed 99% of content promoting harmful content. Snapchat demonstrates corporate responsibility while working with leading experts on in-app tools to support families and communities.

If excessive use of the platforms and apps equates to addiction and over 98% of the western world is online for five hours or more daily, the internet must be regulated to prevent future injury and to hold corporations accountable. I selected this topic to provide insight on a societal issue. Building safety into the platforms and apps through awareness, working with product developers early in the design process and reporting abuse to authorities are all actions we can take to help.

Sources

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, 15 U.S.C. 6501-6505 Children’s Privacy (1998).

Gold, A. (2023, January 11). ?Lawsuit pushes addiction case against social media firms. AXIOS. https://www.axios.com/2023/01/11/social-media-addiction-lawsuits-case

Hutchinson, A. (2023, March 23). Meta launches refreshed safety focus center to help users access focused assistance. SocialMediaToday. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-launches-refreshed-safety-center-to-help-users-access-focused-assistan/645877/

Vogels, E., Gelles-Watnick, R. & Massarat, N. (2022, August 10). Teens, social media and technology 2022. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/

Ysais, J. (2023, March 2). Social media victim’s law center files wrongful death lawsuit against Snapchat for its role in the deaths of nine minors and young adults across six states. Social Media Victim’s Law Center. https://socialmediavictims.org/press-releases/smvlc-files-fifth-wrongful-death-lawsuit-against