Over-social media use? Try parental guidance

At least two school boards in the US are suing social media companies like Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, as well as Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube for being ‘addictive’ and contributing to a ‘teenage mental health crisis’. The latest lawsuit last week, perhaps not ironically, comes from a Silicon Valley county school board. This raises issues on liability of platforms for the content they carry. Usually, media platforms are provided some degree of legal protection for conducting their business so long as they follow limits to free speech set out by law. Restrictions on access by underaged individuals form an important subset of these rules, which technology companies adhere to. Going beyond, they also offer guidance to reduce overdependence on social media consumption by teenagers. That is one part of the solution to a rise in mental health concerns among the young. Schools and parents also have a role to play in enforcing restrictions over screen time.

Typically, consumption of media converges on the latest available technology, be it the printed word or augmented reality. Every technological iteration is superior to its predecessors in how humans interact with the information they consume. Television was more engrossing than radio and social media is more immersive, by design, than legacy platforms. Concerns over the social impact of TV, once a pressing issue, now seem overstated.

Frontiers for information consumption are shifting beyond content created by humans. The metaverse is, again, by design far more immersive than the current multimedia experience. Big Tech is placing huge bets on content created by AI and delivered through virtual reality. The ‘addiction’ frontier, too, is moving beyond social media and is being pushed out by the same companies school boards are having trouble with. The solution, of course, is to impose justifiable and practicable curbs on creation and consumption of content rather than limit the technology that makes both possible. Such solutions have been around since the invention of the printing press.