A Seton Hall conference on Friday brought together experts to discuss the harmful impact of technology and social media on children, what some have said is the worst public health crisis of our time for kids.
“Teens spend 8.5 hours on screens, and half of teens say that they are constantly online,” said Gaia Bernstein, co-director of the Gibbons Institute for Law Science and Technology at Seton Hall.
New Jersey has been among the states in court with charges that media companies are intentionally gearing their apps to be addictive, using features like infinite scroll.
“Ultimately, features like curated algorithms, infinite scrolling, haptic notifications where the phones vibrate, quantified popularity through views, likes or follows, and face enhancing filters are contributing to some of the worst problems we have,” said state Attorney General Matt Platkin.
Platkin likened actions now to those taken by several AG’s in the late 1990s who sued the tobacco industry for targeting kids. He has led a coalition of 41 bipartisan AG’s across the country in a lawsuit against Meta, citing evidence that the company knew it was addicting kids, even while denying it.
