Summary
Highlights
Towards the end of the phone-free week, Josh's initial enthusiasm wanes, and he feels left out from friends. Keah, surprisingly, starts to enjoy life without her phone, finding new activities like go-karting more engaging than endless scrolling. Upon getting their phones back, both are ecstatic about the notifications but Keah has a revelation: 'social media is just not that great anymore.' She feels better when not endlessly scrolling. The experiment highlights the difficulty for both children and parents to live without smartphones. Teenagers want to keep the positive aspects of their phones while eliminating harmful content, emphasizing the need for social media companies to refine their algorithms and design.
Teenagers are heavily reliant on smartphones, with calls across the globe to restrict or ban them for kids. Fourteen-year-old Josh uses his phone for up to ten hours a day on weekends, while Keah, also 14, received her first smartphone at age seven and often stays up until 5 AM scrolling. The average 11-14-year-old in the US spends nine hours a day in front of a screen, and a quarter of UK children as young as three own a smartphone. As an experiment, Josh and Keah agree to give up their phones, tablets, and laptops for a week, receiving basic phones with no internet for emergencies.
Social media companies use algorithms to keep users engaged for longer, maximizing ad revenue. Cai, an 18-year-old from Manchester, describes being exposed to violent and misogynistic content since he was 15 on TikTok and Instagram. He notes that content can quickly escalate from harmless to graphic, even when he indicates disinterest. Cai's experiences include seeing posts making light of domestic violence and people being run over, which he says desensitizes young people. He's also seen friends radicalized by controversial influencers. Ofcom, the UK regulator, acknowledges that algorithms from major social media companies have unintentionally recommended harmful content to children.
A few days into the smartphone ban, Keah reflects on past insecurities caused by social media but is desperate for her phone back, feeling irritable. Josh, however, is faring better, reporting a more productive day and enjoying a party more without his phone. Despite this, the content seen by teenagers like Cai is significantly more harmful than what Keah and Josh usually encounter. Andrew Kaung, a former employee at TikTok and Meta, reveals that different genders and age groups are exposed to vastly different content, with teenage boys often seeing graphic violence, stabbings, and misogynistic material. He claims his suggestions for improved moderation were rejected due to cost and effort.
TikTok states that 99% of violating content is removed by AI or human moderators before reaching 10,000 views, employing 40,000 safety staff and innovative technology. They deny using gender to recommend content and prohibit extreme violence or misogyny. Meta highlights over 50 tools and features for positive, age-appropriate experiences for teens. Andrew Kaung, however, believes social media companies cannot be trusted to self-regulate and advocates for government intervention and stricter regulations. Countries like Florida and France are considering bans for younger age groups. Peter Etchells, a professor specializing in digital technology's behavioral effects, notes a lack of convincing evidence for a direct causal link between smartphone use and mental health issues in children.
Etchells cites South Korea's 2011 'shutdown law', which blocked gaming for under-16s after midnight, as an example of an ineffective ban. While initially appearing to increase sleep by two minutes, it led to increased internet use during the day, ultimately being repealed in 2021. He argues that blanket bans aren't the solution and instead emphasizes building digital literacy skills in children, teachers, parents, and caregivers to navigate online lives effectively. Cai agrees that bans are not the answer, but wishes for more control over content, emphasizing the need for 'dislike' buttons to actually prevent similar content from being shown.