Social media companies are ‘purposefully poisoning’ children with addictive content: Former Facebook analyst
Heritage Foundation research fellow and former Facebook analyst Kara Frederick discusses the harmful effects social media has on young children and adolescents.
Former Facebook analyst Kara Frederick joined "Mornings with Maria" Wednesday to discuss the harmful impacts social media companies have on young children and adolescents.
While "fact-checkers" have been accused of censoring political content on various platforms, the world of social media remains largely unchecked for young consumers. Suicidal content and other harmful material are at their fingertips, with little to no measures in place to protect their developing minds.
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"So, we need to understand that these platforms, they know the deleterious effects that they have on kids, and yet they're proceeding with creating platforms for younger and younger users anyway. So, Facebook called pre-teens an ‘untapped’ but ‘valuable’ audience, and they are purposely poisoning the next generation with highly addictive content, and they know exactly what they're doing." Frederick told FOX Business host Maria Bartiromo, who also hosts a new four-part series on Fox Nation called 'Killer Apps.'
"We talk about the political implications of these platforms and censorship, the economic implications of their anti-competitive behavior. But I don't think it's talked about enough when it comes to the social and cultural impacts of what these platforms are actually doing." Frederick added.
Frederick warned that the rise in popularity of platforms like Instagram and TikTok have led to harmful impacts on young consumers, like suicidal thoughts and gender dissatisfaction.
"Eating disorder videos pushed by TikTok, suicidal ideation when it comes to Instagram… 6% of American users said they traced their suicidal thoughts directly back to the platform Instagram. Teen girls from using TikTok have been shown to evince verbal and physical ticks, and we have a number of gender dissatisfaction."
Now, people are looking to Congress to pass legislation to protect young children from dangerous content on social media platforms.
"Congress needs to get on it. And I applaud the efforts that are bipartisan with Marsha Blackburn, Senator Blumenthal as well... we need to expand and strengthen those parental controls, you know, raise that age from 13 to at least 18. There's no excuse for these platforms not to aggressively enforce their age requirements and then raise them," Frederick asserted.
"When you're 13 years old, you're not equipped to handle these devices and what they can do to your soul. So, I think it's critical that Congress engage in more scrutiny, more oversight. That is their job and more pressure on these companies. So good on Marsha Blackburn for leading the charge here. I hope that something can actually get passed."
However, Congress’s involvement has some worried that it might impede on the First Amendment principles.
"I think there has to be strict limiting principles on any proposals. We have to understand that the First Amendment is a moral standard." Frederick explained.
"We need to impress upon these platforms that the First Amendment freedom of expression is absolutely critical, and all future reform should flow from there. So, using that First Amendment standard is absolutely critical to not restricting freedom of expression, but narrowly targeting and being focused on the exact harms that these platforms commit." Frederick continued.
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