Hey there --



“I am just in awe.”

That’s what Senator Richard Blumenthal had to say earlier this week at the close of our youth roundtable after hearing five young people share their powerful stories and experiences with social media.

I couldn’t agree more. We were blown away by their courage to speak out about social media’s harms to the mental health and well-being of young people.

If you don’t have time for the full roundtable (no worries most people don’t have time to watch a 44 minute video!), here’s a quick recap video: [[link removed]]

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Each of the roundtable participants raised important points about the need for Congress to act to better protect kids and teens online. Some highlights below:

“I began to develop an incredibly parasitic relationship with social media that led to a social media addiction. I was spending about five to six hours on these platforms daily…I began to quantify my own worth with likes, comments and followers.” — Emma Lembke

“I think something that has really struck deep with me throughout my time in this field is the idea that if you cannot identify the product, you are the product, and user attention is monetized in a way that has no regard for our well-being on these platforms, because we are in fact, how they are making money.” — Chloe Shrager

"All of us here recognize that social media isn't going away. And while there are benefits that we've all experienced, the tremendous harms outweigh those benefits when you're talking about suicide ideations and self harm.” — Zamaan Qureshi

This conversation came on the heels of President Biden’s first State of the Union address, in which he called on Congress to stop Big Tech’s “national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit” [[link removed]] and “ban targeted ads for kids.” [[link removed]]

With your help and by centering the most vulnerable, we can truly take on Big Tech and hold them accountable for their harms to young users.

Thanks for being with us,

Nicole

Nicole Gill
Co-founder & Executive Director
Accountable Tech

We see the irony of asking you to take action on the same platforms we’re fighting to hold accountable, but they are… well… dominant. We have to reach people where they are in order to level the playing field -- and we’re ready to bring the fight right to their own platforms.


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