Meta knows how bad its sites are for kids, say lawyers

Is Meta acting like a tobacco company denying cigarettes cause cancer, or an oil giant downplaying climate science? Lawyers in a recent court filing claim the social media titan buried internal research for years suggesting its platforms can harm children's mental health. Lawyers representing plaintiffs in 1,464 lawsuits (as …

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook should add the parents of all of the plaintiff's children as co-defendents.

[Taliesinawen]

Jonathan Haidt on the Anxious Generation

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness is a 2024 book by Jonathan Haidt which argues that the spread of smartphones, social media, and overprotective parenting have led to a "rewiring" of childhood and a rise in mental illness

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Jonathan Haidt on the Anxious Generation

Been anxiously chatting with missus just this morning about this. Kids are lacking in motivation for anything that requires consistent effort. It's like watching a car crash with your kids in it. It's the whole environment; homework on computers, AI helping, Youtube & games making everything look easy so they are dissappointed when they can't be a guitar hero or BMX champion in 2 weeks. Even many schools let them eat shitty processed foods. Birthday parties and people give them sweets and anything full of sugar - because they like it! You're a bloody adult, your job is to prepare them for life not get make them happy for 30 minutes at the expense of heart disease or cancer at 40. The point is they become happy and fulfilled adults.

[Valeyard]

Re: Jonathan Haidt on the Anxious Generation

my wife and I don't use our phones when the child is in the room, don't want her growing up with the opinion that your face stuck in a device all day is at all normal, nor do i want her to have to keep prompting for someone's attention

she only watches proper approved TV. Her nursery kept trying to show her online videos such as the likes of cocomelon which is insanely fast-moving quick shots of constant motion to constantly overstimulate. She's exposed to long-form media more, and now she's just started learning to read she's limited to 30 minutes of TV per day (or 1 full-length film) as she can entertain herself more that way instead

When she gets older there'll be the FOMO and peer pressure of needing a smartphone, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I use a dumbphone myself so I'll try to pass that habit along

[ICL1900-G3]

Re: Jonathan Haidt on the Anxious Generation

One million upvotes.

[Ken Hagan]

Re: Jonathan Haidt on the Anxious Generation

"Kids are lacking in motivation for anything that requires consistent effort."

This has been true since the dawn of life. No organism wants to expend effort with a clear prospect of a reward. I certainly hated stuff that required effort. I still do. I regard it as a sign of intelligence and a refreshing lack of masochism or Puritanism.

[Oblivium]

Re: Jonathan Haidt on the Anxious Generation

It’s an excellent book, and is definitely worth reading (but not on your phone) whether you’re a parent or not.

It’s a heartbreaking book too: because at least two generations have been ruined by a handful of dead-eyed billionaire sociopaths, and we all just let it happen.

And yes, I’m on my phone too. I know.

[Blackjack]

Re: Jonathan Haidt on the Anxious Generation

[overprotective parenting] Let's their kids use smartphones and Internet without supervision.

Guess what's wrong there.

[Eric 9001]

Obviously social media causes mental harm

Such effect obviously applies to children and teens and adults alike.

But nobody will put an end to the maximization of such proprietary software and SaaSS, as it is profitable for some businesses, just like how maximizing cigarettes and oil is profitable for some businesses.

[Winkypop]

I thank the FSM i grew-up before social media

A meet up with your friends involved riding your bike somewhere. Chat involved face to face conversation. Mind you “unliking” someone might have involved a physical altercation.

[DS999]

Re: I thank the FSM i grew-up before social media

I'm more glad that I came of age before camera phones were ubiquitous. Sure people had cameras, even the cheap disposable ones were common by mid to late 20s, but most of those photos were lost long ago or are in someone's photo album and not tagged to my name on the internet for all eternity. I mean sure it would be nice to see some of them, but I think it is a lot better to have that part of your life live mostly in your memories rather than out there for the whole world to see.

Maybe it doesn't matter to younger generations, since it is true of EVERYONE. I might be worried that I personally could have had some blowback from experimenting with illegal drugs or whatever back then, but I'm looking at if it was just me rather than everyone I knew. If half the people your age (not even counting pot which isn't really considered "illegal" anymore) had similar evidence permanently online it isn't likely to be a problem unless they're in a strict religion or something.

I used to wish that Facebook had been around back then because there are some people from back then I would have kept in touch with. But they are long gone from my life, and there would be no hope of finding them again. Maybe it is possible with enough effort, but putting that much effort towards finding someone you haven't seen for decades is pretty red flag creepy lol

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: I thank the FSM i grew-up before social media

But they are long gone from my life, and there would be no hope of finding them again.

All part of growing up. Accepting loss and change; that things fade and end. Life is bitter·sweet or it's a poor simulcrum of life.

So much of the pleasure of unexpectedly meeting someone you lost track of decades ago, is that it was totally unanticipated.

Omniscience must be incredibly boring.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I thank the FSM i grew-up before social media

But I am 100% certain we really were happier. With boys it's as if they want to stop them becoming men. The sort of men that stand up for themselves, stay fit, think critically and will fight if necessary. They want them to be fearful, demotivated, lacking in confidence, calling on authorities for any problem, accepting 2+2=5.

[DS999]

Re: I thank the FSM i grew-up before social media

Ah yes one of the right wing champions of toxic masculinity here. The world was better when you could just walk up to women and grab them by the pussy, right?

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: I thank the FSM i grew-up before social media

Mind you “unliking” someone might have involved a physical altercation.

In which case I reckon we would share many of the usual suspects on our "unlike" lists.

[Anonymous Coward]

Better for parents

What would help rather than attacking facebook, despite that I don't like their stuff, would be to provide better (free ideally) software for parental control and perhaps have some rules about companies deliberately out manouvering them. Was looking to block Fortnite and it's nearly impossible on your average home router and even if you can it becomes too complex manage. I don't want to run to the expense of pro hardware and the noise etc. With kids I don't have the time to start building custom proxies, routers etc.

[Valeyard]

Re: Better for parents

It was a solved problem in the 90s.

The computer was in the living room corner. The parents could see what you were doing and how long you were spending.

[doublelayer]

Re: Better for parents

Might I suggest blocking Fortnite by controlling whether its binary gets installed on any of the computers you don't want it on rather than hoping the firewall will break it? From a quick scan down its Wikipedia article, it doesn't look like there's anything that can be played without a local client, and it's not too hard to deny your children access to install things without your permission. It won't help if they buy their own devices and use those, but otherwise, that seems the more reliable option and has the benefit of working on most other things too.

[omz13]

Where I live: on one hand, the Ministry of Education has been steadily pushing for ICT in schools (so lots of lovely exposure to tablets)... and on the other hand, the Ministry of Education believes computer and smartphone screens can be bad for health and are implementing measures to address it.

[Jim Mitchell]

Reading the various comments, I'd like to remind people that the older generation has been complaining about the failings of the next one since the start of recorded time.

[Valeyard]

true but i think in this instance it's the older generation at fault

[Ken Hagan]

It always was.

Ancient Greeks believed there was a golden age, which gave way to a silver age, which gave way to the Age of Shit (I paraphrase) that they themselves live in. We also have the story of The Fall, which is the same idea.

The idea of Progress, that today might actually be better than yesterday, probably didn't take root until the Enlightenment. Even today, though, there are still plenty of folk who subscribe to the view that "it was better in my day".

It wasn't. Really. The kids will be fine, once we've shuffled off and taken our dinosaur attitudes with us.

[Rich 2]

Scummy Shitty Company

"The full record will show that for over a decade, we have listened to parents, researched issues that matter most, and made real changes to protect teens," Meta added. "We're proud of the progress we've made and we stand by our record."

Taken word-by-word, I think that quote is TECHNICALLY correct (obviously allowing for their sewer-level standards of pride). But it's a straw statement; it's the words that are NOT said that are important. They have not said (for example) "we did some studies and they showed that we're not total scum" or "nobody ever pointed out that we're morally bankrupt"

[JWLong]

Internet of Crap!

"Is Meta acting like a tobacco company denying cigarettes cause cancer, or an oil giant downplaying climate science?"

Meta is acting like corporate America does everywhere! And, the government is in bed with them.

Why, because of money!

The dumbing down of society is the de·sir·a·ble effect.

In America 50% of the population are overweight (FAT), 50% of the population is on a government stipend (FREE MONEY), 50% are on a goverment provided prescription (LUNEY TUNE PILL) and the government loves it.

Anti-Social websites and apps effecting kids, for shame!. They all know about it and have buried the facts intentionally as a means to gain control of the masses. If a few people (KIDS) kill themselves well thats expected and worth the gains to them.

They must know and control their servants and the internet is their way of doing that. There's one way of slowing down their ambitions of control and surveillance and that is to just turn it off, NOW!

[jonathan keith]

Re: Internet of Crap!

It's as real shame that you come across as a frothing nutcase, because there are elements of truth in a lot of what you write.