{"id":869957,"date":"2026-08-27T06:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869957\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T06:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:50:13","slug":"meta-settlement-should-fund-mental-health-resources-advocates-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869957\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta settlement should fund mental health resources, advocates say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mental health advocates hope Meta settlement funds go to more resources<\/p>\n

\"Kendra<\/a>CONCORD, N.H. \u2014<\/p>\n

At the center of the lawsuit that Meta settled Wednesday for $17 billion<\/a> was how social media affects the mental health of young people.<\/p>\n

Critics have accused social media companies of using their algorithms to drive addictive behavior, but mental health advocates also worry about the bullying that happens online.<\/p>\n

In a survey done by the Department of Health and Human Services, 18% of students surveyed said they have been electronically bullied through texting or social media. <\/p>\n

The data show that there has been a slight decrease in that number compared to 2023. It’s now around pre-COVID levels, but advocates said it should be even lower.<\/p>\n

>> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go<\/a> <<<\/p>\n

Susan Stearns, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness \u2013 New Hampshire, said people scrolling through social media feeds can feel overwhelmed by what others are posting. <\/p>\n

“We also know that the ways people portray themselves online are not always realistic, and it can set unrealistic standards, especially for young people, that can cause harm,” Stearns said.<\/p>\n

Stearns said she would like to see the settlement money used for more mental health resources, such as access to early screening, expanding access to care and in-home services. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mental health advocates hope Meta settlement funds go to more resources CONCORD, N.H. \u2014 At the center of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2687,41811,64,63,1786,11566,137,81721,2462,514,438406,5005,515,1333,437951,360176,58650,2461,148305,438407,41313,28539],"class_list":["post-869957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-access","tag-advocate","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-department","tag-executive-director","tag-health","tag-human-services","tag-lawsuit","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-resource","tag-mental-illness","tag-mentalhealth","tag-meta","tag-meta-settlement","tag-national-alliance","tag-new-hampshire","tag-settlement","tag-social-medium","tag-susan-stearns","tag-wednesday","tag-young-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}