Our digital ecosystem is trash. It is low quality and intentionally designed around maximizing user engagement, luring you in for hours on end so that it can push the maximum number of ads in your face.
The consequences this design has on the health and well-being of children are heavy and well-documented. Prolonged low-quality digital media use, which includes TV, the internet, social media, video games, and interactive assistants, can lead to language delays, sleep problems, anger issues, poor eyesight, weaker cognition, attention problems, and even increased risk of developing cardiometabolic problems like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, a respected professional group of child healthcare professionals that recently got caught up in a funding battle for standing up against RFK Jr.,released a new policy statement on Tuesday highlighting how best to go about protecting minors from the digital world. The report says that it shouldn’t be up to the parents to minimize their kids’ screen time, but the responsibility of tech companies and the government to prohibit harmful design.
That’s becuase the internet is pervasive, easy to access, and constantly reminds you of its existence with notifications. A parent can only do so much with screen time limits. What should be done instead is enacting strict, useful child safety guardrails and sticking to them.
“Intentionally designed around engagement and commercialization, this ecosystem is shaped by industry incentives and lies largely outside of the control of individual families,” the AAP saeid in the report. “that is, many parts of the digital ecosystem have business models based on data collection and advertising revenue.”
Algorithmic recommender systems, autoplay, intermittent rewards, user profiling, friend recommendations, and social qualification metrics are all methods used to encourage prolonged and frequent use on social media, and can amplify the dark side effects of the internet.
The report comes as the effects of social media on minors are starting to get more policy attention across the world. Last month, Australia became the first major country to ban under-16 users from social media. Roughly a month in, nearly
