AG HEALEY CO-LEADS BIPARTISAN COALITION
EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ADDRESSING YOUTH SOCIAL MEDIA USE
Sends Joint Letter to U.S. Senate Committee Sharing Concerns about Social
Media Platforms Exploiting Young People for Profit
BOSTON – Today, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey co-led a
bipartisan coalition of 52 attorneys general expressing strong support for the hearings being conducted by the U.S. Senate
Committee addressing protection and safety of
kids and teens using social media.
“Social
media platforms cannot be permitted to ignore the
threat that social media can pose to children just to make a profit,”
said AG Healey. “We applaud the Senate for holding these hearings to
examine the business model these companies use to drive young people to their
platforms. We will continue to work with our partners to protect the well-being
of our kids and prevent exploitation and harm.”
The hearings on protecting kids online are being held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and
Transportation’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data
Security.
AG Healey, along with other attorneys general across the
country, has been watchful and concerned over the impacts of social media on
youth. Those concerns have grown with the recent research from Facebook’s own
internal studies showing that social media can inflict harm—in the form of
increased mental distress, eating disorders, bullying, suicide, and other
self-harm—on a significant number of kids.
Today’s letter
recognizes the hearings will uncover critical information about the
business practices that social media companies are using to gain the attention
of more young people on their platforms. In the letter, the attorneys general
write that “more engagement by the user equals more data to leverage for
advertising, which equals greater profit. This prompts social media companies
to design their algorithms to psychologically manipulate young users into a
state of addiction to their cell phone screens.”
In
May 2021, AG Healey co-led a bipartisan coalition of 44 attorneys general in sending a letter to
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging the company to abandon its plans to
launch a version of Instagram for children under the age of 13. That request
was ignored. Last week, in advance of the Congressional hearings, Facebook
announced their intent to “pause” the project. The attorneys general believe
the project should be abandoned altogether.
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