'What is modern childhood?' NJ reacts to social media addiction verdict
Jurors found that features like the infinite scroll, autoplay and content recommendations make the apps addictive.
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Courts ordered Meta and Google to pay a young woman millions of dollars last week after a jury found the platforms she accessed as a kid deliberately harmed her mental health. She had accessed YouTube as young as 6 years old and Instagram at 9.
It didn’t surprise Holly Moscatiello, the New Jersey mom and founder of The Balance Project.
“The goal is to keep people engaged,” Moscatiello said. “It is a very smart business model, but it’s not a great model for a developing brain.”
The Balance Project is now in more than 200 communities nationwide trying to answer one key question.
“What is modern childhood?” Moscatiello said. “How should modern childhood evolve? And, how can we support parents in doing that?”
U.S. Health and Human Services has found that three daily hours of youth social media use is associated with higher anxiety and depression rates. Jurors found that features like the infinite scroll, autoplay and content recommendations make the apps addictive.
“Now, we will hopefully see some checks and balances even surrounding design principles,” said Katie Matthews, of the Cranford, NJ chapter of The Balance Project.
A YouTube spokesperson says it is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site. But one parent who spoke with News 12 said even the safeguards built in at schools or with the YouTube Kids mode can’t filter everything, and it has very real consequences.
“She came across just a music video, but it was not made for an eight-year-old,” said Detgen Greeff, of the Fair Haven, NJ chapter of The Balance Project. “It was just dark and disturbing, and she had nightmares about it for weeks. I was so glad that she told me.”
This will likely be a key part of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s term. She established a youth mental health safety office on her first day, and supports a bill protecting kids from targeted online ads. The Balance Project says they’ve spoken with the governor’s policy team.
