By Eagle Times Staff
New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and Gov. Chris Sununu are appealing for help building a case against online social media companies.
“New Hampshire’s children are the future of our state and our nation, and we are making every effort to ensure necessary steps are taken to prevent harm by these platforms,” said Gov. Chris Sununu in a prepared statement. “New Hampshire will look at all necessary options to protect our children.”
The appeal is part of a national investigation into the impacts of social media being conducted in part by the state Justice Department.
“We want to hear from people who have loved ones, particularly young people, who have been negatively affected by social media,” said Attorney General Formella. “Extensive social media use has been tied to profound risks of harm in youth. Indeed, there has been an increased focus on the correlation between the development of serious mental health disorders by minors and time spent on social media.”
According to the Attorney General’s Office, the state has been investigating this issue for two years, looking into the business practices of social media platforms and engaging with educators, health care experts, municipalities and working with Attorneys General across the nation.
In November 2021, New Hampshire joined a nationwide investigation into Meta Platforms.
In a press release, the Attorney General’s Office alleges that Meta is “providing and promoting its social media platforms – Facebook and Instagram – to children and young adults despite knowing that use of these platforms is associated with an increased risk of physical and mental health harms in young people, including depression, eating disorders, and even suicide.”
On Tuesday, Meta announced a suite of new features to “support teens and families and make it even easier to manage the time they spend on our apps.”
The features include parental supervision tools on Messenger allowing parents to see who their children are interacting with and how much time they spend on the platform. On Instagram, Meta will now send teens a notice after they block someone encouraging them to allow their parents to supervise their accounts.
The company says it already shows “safety notices” when adults who have shown potentially suspicious behavior message teens and restricts people over 19 from sending private messages to teens who don’t follow them. And, new invites will now be limited to text, so teens will no longer receive unwanted photos and videos, the company says.
And soon, the company will be rolling out its “take a break” feature on Instagram to Facebook.
“Soon, teens will also see a notification when they’ve spent 20 minutes on Facebook, promting them to take time away from the app and set daily time limits,” Meta announced. “We’re also exploring a new nudge on Instagram that suggests teens close the app if they are scrolling Reels at night.”
It is unknown if these measures, and those Meta promises to take in the near future, will be enough to satisfy the Attorneys General.
“My office is now considering how it can best protect New Hampshire’s youth from the harm these platforms cause and promote,” Formella said. “Eliminating the harmful effects of social media on New Hampshire’s youth and holding social media platforms accountable for their actions is a top priority for me.”
Earlier this month Sununu signed an Executive Order calling on the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services to create guidelines to teach about the dangers of social media in all K-12 health education courses.
The Attorney General’s Office asks that anyone who has witnessed or experienced negative impacts from social media use on the mental health of a young person share their name, contact information, age of the person impacted, a brief summary of what they saw and the social media platform on which it occurred with it by emailing [email protected].
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.