WARMINSTER, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — As Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg answered questions about young people’s use of Instagram in a Los Angeles courtroom, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday joined a roundtable discussion on social media and mental health with dozens of teens from across Bucks County.
The discussion, at William Tennent High School in Warminster, wasn’t billed as a lecture, but an information gathering session. The plan, according to Sunday, is to hold several roundtables across the state before creating policy to address the impacts of social media on young people and children.
Sunday, a Republican, called the meeting with the Bucks County IU Student Forum a good start.
“The information we got from these kids was in some ways scary, but at the same time I was just floored by their strong feelings on this issue,” he said, “and these are things that we will be able to use as we work through navigating this new world we live in.”
The effect of social media on young people is the focus of an unprecedented social media trial in Los Angeles that questions whether Meta's platforms deliberately addict and harm children.
Attorneys representing the plaintiff, a now 20-year-old woman identified by the initials KGM, claim her early use of social media addicted her to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. Meta Platforms and Google’s YouTube are the two remaining defendants in the case, which TikTok and Snap have settled.
The Meta case has been selected as a bellwether trial, meaning its outcome could impact how thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies are likely to play out.
Cailyn George is a member of the student forum and a senior at William Tennent. She said social media is a useful tool but there are challenges.
“There’s been a lot of issues with misinformation, impacts on mental health, and comparing to influencers and things like that. And I think they can have negative impacts, but I think if we address it and try to fix it right away hopefully it can lead to some solutions,” she said.
Alexander Sanchez, a senior at Quakertown Senior High School, also called misinformation a problem.
“Since anybody can post anything, whatever they want, I feel like if they are a big enough person on social media, a bunch of people will automatically believe it, instead of going to a reliable source and doing their own research for themselves,” he said.
The meeting at William Tennent High School lasted about 90 minutes.
“I think it's really important that he talk to us,” said George, “[because] we are seeing these patterns and we are learning these patterns and we are going through it, and we see it and we want it fixed and we also don’t know how to.”
She continued, “You have somebody who has the resources and outlets who know how to fix it, and you have kids who have all these problems that adults might not know about and might not understand as well.”
Sanchez added that he believes social media has caused addiction in other youth.
“Students will get into arguments over their phone,” he said.”If a teacher asks a student to put their phone away, they’ll get into a whole fight about it.”