Children Are Not Only Being Harmed, Many Are Dying Due to Social Media: Activist

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]to talk about the impact of social media on young users. Joining us now is Donna Rice Hughes, president and CEO of Enough is Enough. So, Donna, thank you for joining us uh today. Good afternoon to you. To start off, can you just explain for us what does the current research show about social media's impact on teens mental health?

[00:00:21]>> Well, there's a tremendous amount of of research um not just research, but also anecdotal uh evidence, if you will. But we know that the these big tech companies are actually programming their algorithms to hook kids much like big tobacco did with hooking people on cigarettes and nicotine. They know that their designs are addictive because they're designed to be addictive to keep anyone, including children, on their platforms longer. What does that mean exactly? Well, it means greater advertising dollars. They're putting safety over profits and we know that there is a a negative impact on the mental health of children. Not only that, uh these platforms also open up uh kids and anyone really to sexually explicit content. In fact, there was just a recent uh verdict in New Mexico where Meta was fined $375 million because what they discovered in that court case, was that Meta knew about 7.5 million um reports of child pornography or child sex abuse material, which is what we're calling it now. And they they didn't report it. They were waiting for the end toend encryption to go through.

[00:01:38]They also discovered that 500,000 kids were being targeted daily on Facebook.

[00:01:45]So, so, so we we have research, but we also have court evidence now that shows that these platforms truly are not designed for kids. We've known that for a long time and kids are actually being harmed and not only being harmed, many are dying.

[00:02:00]>> Yeah. Speaking of which, I mean these these social media challenges, I mean the when kids engage in these sometimes very dangerous activity, I mean terrible things have happened. Can you speak to us about this?

[00:02:12]>> Oh, absolutely. Um, well, Tik Tok, for instance, does have regular challenges and they're really designed to make kids think that they're just playing a game, but sometimes they're very, very dangerous. For instance, the tick- tock choking challenge. This is a big challenge about a year ago, I suppose it was now. And um they basically make, you know, little cartoons come up and everything about, you know, choking yourself, especiating, passing out. And when you do that, you get more likes, you get more friends, you can go viral, that kind of thing. And I told the story on my podcast. I interviewed uh Todd Miners um uh about the Todd Miner story.

[00:02:52]And this child actually was, I think, 12 or 13 years old. and he was doing the Tik Tok challenge and it wasn't it didn't turn out well. He accidentally committed suicide and his dad found him and his dad came on my show to talk about it. So, um when I say kids are dying, they really are dying. Um these platforms are putting safety over profits. They know that they're doing this and they don't care which is why they need to be regulated. I mean, this is one of the largest uh unregulated experiments in digital history is social media. And now we've got AI, and that's even worse. That that's just exponentially uh more dangerous. Well, I can't say more dangerous, but but it's it's going to have a lot more problems that we've even conceived of on social media.

[00:03:38]>> I mean, that's just heartbreaking. The story that you just told, uh th this should not happen. I mean, we have to do everything to prevent this from ever happening again. And when it does happen, like in the past, who who takes accountability? What does accountability look like when things like this happen?

[00:03:56]>> Well, unfortunately, there hasn't been much accountability in in the case of the the uh Todd and and Matthew Miner story. The family um I believe is suing.

[00:04:07]There have been other cases, for instance, with AI chat bots. Um, Adam Reigns committed suicide because he became so close to his AI chatbot and he started talking about his depression and suicide, interest in suicide and taking his life and eventually the AI chatbot told him not to tell his mom, not to leave the news out, that they just keep it between the two of them. And he ended up killing himself. And so his father, his parents now have a wrongful death suit um against against the company, Chad GPT company. um basically saying that this chatbot became the suicide coach. So, as far as accountability right now, what we're seeing are these kinds of lawsuits. But what this is why we need regulation. We really need regulation. And this is such a timely story right now because there's going to be a Senate Senate hearing. I'm in DC right now on Wednesday uh to talk about the Kids Online Safety Act. And this is a really important piece of legislation that the Senate has put forth now three years in a row, bipartisan support out of judiciary. Um, we've got to get this passed. Uh, and we've, this requires these platforms to have a duty of care to put safety over profits because if they're not regulated, we know these big tech companies simply won't do that.

[00:05:24]>> Okay. Okay, Donna, what is your view on uh limiting social media to to users above or yeah, above a certain age? For example, countries like Australia are moving to ban social media use um for 15 year olds. Uh uh I could be wrong on the exact age, but what do you think what do you think the US should do? Should it do something like this?

[00:05:47]>> Well, I they have gone really I I think in a good way. Australia, they they're banning s uh pe kids under 16 years old.

[00:05:55]And I think this is a really good move and it set global precedent because now Indonesia is looking at the same thing, Greece, the UK, etc. Keep in mind, social media platforms were designed, go back, Zuckerberg, Facebook, MySpace for college age kids and older. Now they're trying to retrofit it for kids that are much younger. It's not designed for these kids and u period. and and now we know these companies are intentionally building their algorithms to to hook kids. So, I think it's a good idea, but I do believe we're a far cry um from an actual ban federally when we've had now three years to even get KOSA passed. And KOSA isn't a ban, that's Kids Online Safety Act. KOSA is simply requiring these platforms to have a duty of care and to set the most restrictive uh parental controls and and privacy policies and everything else to keep these kids safe. If that passes, it's possible down the road we might see a ban, but honestly, these platforms simply aren't safe for kids. I mean, they're um they're just not. And you can retrofit it all you want to, but once kids are online, then they're they're vulnerable to the traffickers, the predators, the sextorionists, the pornographers, and the very companies that are giving them these platforms to use saying it's okay, it's safe. So, you know, um it's not it's not right now.

[00:07:23]So, we encourage parents, you know, don't let your kids on these platforms until at least, you know, they're they're in their teens. And I know they're going to, you know, put up a fit, but that's okay. You know, the these these are tools that are not toys.

[00:07:38]And um, you know, we're very concerned when you start seeing kids dying or kids becoming so depressed and and even suicidal and and having eating disorders and pornography um, issues and everything else, you just have to say, "Wait a minute. time out.

[00:07:54]>> Okay. So, Donna, you bring up an important point of what parents should do uh in this conversation. Can you elaborate and explain a bit more in depth? What should parents be doing to limit their kids uh on social media?

[00:08:08]>> Well, they should be doing the same thing that they should be doing on any internet connection. So, that's the smartphone, the computer, a gaming platform, too, um and on social media.

[00:08:18]First of all, if you're going to let your child, if they're over 13, go on any of these platforms, go and look at it yourself. Get familiar with that platform and make sure you think that it really is safe and that you can cyber parent that particular platform or that particular gaming device because that's a big thing. You can't just let them out there and just assume if you put a few controls on that they're okay. Have regular conversations with them. If they're online every day, doesn't matter what what they're doing. Um, who are you talking to? you know, how are you using the media? Make sure that you know, you can't take any post back. There's, you know, there's there's no uh takebacks online and and just have those regular conversations and be the safe person because you're opening up all the good and all of the bad. But enough is enough at Internet Safety 101. We really are a one-stop shop for parents. That's internet safety101.org.

[00:09:10]And we have looked at all the risk online and we have free resources. So, if you're concerned about social media, online gaming, pornography, trafficking, whatever concern, you can go into those areas on our website and look to see what are the warning flags, what are the red signs, what are the conversation starters that I can use. And even we've got these these guides here as well.

[00:09:32]This one's for social media where we look at the top social media platforms and we've got what safeguards they have, if any. If they've got a red dot, that means they don't. If there's a green, then that takes you to a tutorial. And these are on our sites. We have these for gaming, social media, AI chat, and smartphones, you know. So, um, your kids don't necessarily need a smartphone when they're six years old. Here's here's an interesting factoid, Don. Um, let's see.

[00:10:00]By age two, guess what percentage of kids have their own uh tablet?

[00:10:06]>> Age two.

[00:10:07]>> 40%.

[00:10:08]>> 40%.

[00:10:08]>> 40%. 40%. Okay, here's another one for you. age isn't it age eight 25% have their own tablets I go why parents you have to understand this is you are opening up an avenue to some very dangerous people and content that's too young >> it's way too young so we've got one of these first uh safe phones there are phones you can get your kids that are safer than a an an iPhone or an Android device and they're designed more for kids and they give you all these tools so that you can call your kids, they can call you and they can talk with their friends, but there's a lot more lockdown. So, so just keep in mind that as the parent, you know, it we we really have to parent these kids in the digital world is hard. And if you've got two kids and they're on four platforms, that means all these different platforms that you have to basically um cyber parent and and so think twice about letting them on these platforms. I would say because we're we're we're a we're a long way away from really getting the kind of safeguards we need on the internet in in general. And now when you've got AI and AI chat bots and AI toys and everything else, just >> yeah, >> just just realize this is technology.

[00:11:25]These are multibillion dollar companies that are making billions of dollars off your kids just by advertising to them.

[00:11:33]So, so really don't get drawn into the big tech lie that this is all safe because it really isn't. But you as a parent can help make it much safer if you follow the guidelines that we we share with you on our website and you can sign up free for our newsletters.

[00:11:50]We're sending out information >> basically every week on what's going on.

[00:11:54]>> Can you tell us again what the website is?

[00:11:57]>> Yes, it's internetsafety101.org.

[00:12:02]internets safety101.org and um there's also a hearing I think I mentioned on Wednesday on the kids online safety act. So we're just hoping that we can get this passed again out of the Senate and that the House will pass the Senate version. If that happens, President Trump will sign it and we'll be off and running to at least starting to regulate these platforms.

[00:12:24]>> Okay, internet safety 101.org.

[00:12:27]This is for our viewers. Please check out this website. And Donna, thank you for speaking with us today. Fantastic advice and insight. Pleasure speaking with you.

[00:12:36]>> Thank you, Donna. Thanks for having me.