PENNSYLVANIA (WJAC) — Snapchat failed to protect children from inappropriate content and compulsive use — those are the allegations in a lawsuit announced by Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday.
The lawsuit comes just two weeks after Pennsylvania sued TikTok over similar concerns.
Following these lawsuits, we spoke with the founder of a local youth mental health organization about what effect social media use can have on a developing brain and why adults are expressing so much concern about these popular apps.
The Jana Marie Foundation works with kids of all ages, as well as their parents, and has seen and heard first-hand about the impacts that social media use has on today’s youth.
Parents who didn’t grow up with social media may not realize what a large role these apps can play in their children’s lives, and the effect that overuse can have on their brains and behaviors.
Every time we’re watching a new video, there’s a reward that comes with it. It feels good to us in that moment, and so it’s easy to get into that habit of just continuing to scroll and not even recognizing how much time has gone by.And what can happen then is sometimes with the things that take a more focused effort, whether it be reading or doing your homework or engaging in conversation, those can become harder for that kid just because they’re so used to the fast-paced environment and that constant reward.
Mental health experts say that even for kids who use social media themselves, many recognize the harmful effects that excessive scrolling can have and understand that regulations may be beneficial.
They also emphasized the importance of the parent’s role in monitoring screen time, as well as the type of content their children are accessing.
If we’re noticing that they’re going on social media and then they’re getting off really irritable, we’re noticing big shifts in their mood, we’re noticing they’re not able to sleep well at night, these are all pretty significant changes that we’re going to want to explore with curiosity. Try to gain some understanding of what it is that might be that is causing these changes or seeing if they might’ve gotten into some content that might have been appropriate or that they might be trying to process.
The complaint from the office of Attorney General alleges that Snapchat also lied about how often adult-themed material, such as nudity and drug use, appear on its platform, and it demands that Snapchat admits that its platform is designed to be highly addictive.