Smartphones In Schools

New York Times, September 6, 2024

Teachers are supposed to educate children, many of whom have still not caught up from Covid learning loss, while in a battle for attention with fantastically entertaining computers. A growing body of academic research suggests it isn’t going well. But school officials and policymakers have begun to fight back. It’s probably the most significant development of the 2024-25 school year.

At the schools that have recently restricted phones, many people say they already see benefits. For much of the smartphone era — which began with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 — Americans treated the rapid spread of digital technology as inevitable and positive. Now people view it as more mixed. Children’s mental health has deteriorated during the same years that smartphone use has grown. Loneliness has increased, and sleep hours have decreased. In surveys, both teenagers and adults express deep anxiety about their own phone use. “Smartphones have brought us a lot of benefits,” Dr. Vivek Murthy, the United States Surgeon General, has said. “But the harms are also considerable.”

Instagram Imposes New Restrictions for Teens. Will They Work?

ABC News, September 18, 2024

Instagram has unveiled mandatory accounts for teens that bolster privacy protections, enable parental supervision, and restrict notifications during overnight hours.

New and existing users under the age of 18 will be automatically enrolled in what Instagram is calling “Teen Accounts,” the company said. The move comes 16 months after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned in an advisory that excessive social media could pose a “profound risk” to the mental health of children. Instagram also has faced pressure from some federal and state lawmakers seeking to regulate social media use among children and teens.

While this is a step in the right direction, the new guardrails will be an insufficient step towards preventing teen harm. The absence of robust age verification still allows young users to circumvent the rules, rendering the new settings largely pointless.

Screen Use and Teen Mental Health — How Parents Can Play A Vital Role

Forbes, September 24, 2024

One of the biggest predictors of how much time adolescents spend on screens and if that use is problematic is how much their own parents use screens, according to a recent study published in Pediatric Research.

The study examined three-year survey data from over 10,000 adolescents in the United States to assess the prevalence of media parenting practices to identify their association with adolescent screen time, social media use and mobile phone use. Researchers in the study also examined whether screen use was problematic, which meant being unable to quit screen use despite wanting to, or if it was interfering with the adolescent’s schoolwork.

The topic of social media and mental health has recently become a popular source of discourse in American culture. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy warned the American public about an epidemic of loneliness and isolation just last year.

We advise parents to take an honest look at their own screen time before they ask their children to do the same.

 High School Is Becoming a Cesspool of Sexually Explicit Deepfakes

The Atlantic, September 26, 2024

For years now, generative AI has been used to conjure all sorts of realities—dazzling paintings and startling animations of worlds and people, both real and imagined. This power has brought with it a tremendous dark side that many experts are only now beginning to contend with: AI is being used to create nonconsensual, sexually explicit images and videos of children. And not just in a handful of cases—perhaps millions of kids nationwide have been affected in some way by the emergence of this technology, either directly victimized themselves or made aware of other students who have been.

The Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit that advocates for digital rights and privacy, released a report on the alarming prevalence of nonconsensual intimate imagery (or NCII) in American schools. In the past school year, the center’s polling found, 15 percent of high schoolers reported hearing about a “deepfake”—or AI-generated image—that depicted someone associated with their school in a sexually explicit or intimate manner.

Generative-AI tools have increased the surface area for students to become victims and for students to become perpetrators. In other words, whatever else generative AI is good for like streamlining rote tasks or discovering new drugs, the technology has made violating children much easier. We will continue to see an increase in these offenses against our children until laws catch up with AI Technology.

 Big Tech Taps Ties to Republican Lawmakers to Stall Child Safety Bill

Yahoo Finance, September 26, 2024

Top House Republicans are stalling landmark US legislation that would protect children from online exploitation and bullying, bowing to criticisms from Big Tech and exposing a rift within the party due to regulating social media.

The legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act, passed the Senate on a 91-3 vote in July and President Joe Biden has vowed to sign it into law. But House GOP leaders, as well as several other Republican lawmakers, have raised concerns that it’s too heavy handed and could sideline some conservative content online.

The emotionally charged debate over the legislation has laid bare the resilience of tech companies’ political power in the face of growing public concerns about social media’s harmful effects on young people. The legislation also threatens to bring down tech companies’ ad revenue by weakening design features that hook young users and keep them active on online platforms. We will continue to monitor what happens with this bill, as it could impact the safety of millions of American children.