001Thank you for coming. Uh, it's on the thing. Flip it up. Good evening. Thank you all for coming for tonight's Family Academy presentation. Um, our presenter tonight is Michelle Mcgara from the Office of the Attorney General and she's presenting on social media and how that impacts our students and children um with mental health. Welcome. Thank you all so much. It is a pleasure to be here tonight and present on such an important topic that's so relevant to not only our youth but all of us as a as a whole. Um, once again, my name is Michelle Garage and I am a community engagement coordinator for the um, Massachusetts Attorney General, Andrea Joy Campbell, and my office is in New Buffford. So, I am, you know, born and raised here in Bristol County and I am
002proud to be here today representing Florida public schools and um, engaging with our community. So, let's get started. Some of the goals for today, we have three important goals that we would like to primarily focus on. The first one is we're here to inform you about how social media companies purposely design platforms to be addictive not only to youth but to all of us in general. We're here to equip you to inform and guide you, guide the youth in your lives and also empower you to become involved in broader effort efforts to make social media safe for young people and all and hold companies accountable. So, these are just some examples of some really popular social media platforms that our youth are engaging on a day-to-day basis with. We have Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook Messenger,
003Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter, and Discord. So, a lot of these are the ones and also Reddit. A lot of these are the ones that are primarily um more engaging to our youth. So here are some advertising campaigns that are used to engage. And we'll talk a little bit about why these particular slides are relevant. But when when I click over to the next slide, you'll notice that social media companies are using the same type of playbook as big tobacco and E6 marketing to our youth. They're doing that because putting out this material um the same type of notion that it it's been just flooding the um social media platforms to bring in the youth and keep them completely engaged in the social media platforms and not necessarily engaging with their peers or their family. But why
004target young people specifically? Why teens? How much money did social media companies make just from advertising to people under 18 in 2022? Here are some guesses for you. First, 2.4 billion. Second being 5 billion. C 9.3 billion. D 11 billion. Now we kind of go along to see how what the answer of this question is. But the answer of this question is they spent 11 billion in advertising to really draw our teens to these apps. and what happens when you know and we'll talk about kind of some of the side effects of being so drawn into the social media community versus engaging in real life day-to-day time, you know, in the time um engagement. Social media companies made billions in US ad reverence from minors. This is a study shown by Harvard University showing that
005Instagram has made tons and tons of of um billions off of our our youth. We have a slide here that's showing how Facebook, Snapchat, Tik Tok, Twitter, and YouTube as well. So, you can kind of see the apps that our teens and our youth are very engaged in. [Music] What are some of the impacts that we're seeing on our youth? On average, teenagers spend 3 to 5 hours a day on social media. Now, think about this. This is just an average time frame, but as we all know, There might be times where our teens, our youth are spending way more than 3 to 5 hours a day. And what types of effects does that have for them where they're, you know, um on social media platforms and not necessarily engaging with their community and peers.
006However, using social media for more than 3 hours doubles the risk that teens will have for mental health. And this is why we're here today. We're talk about we're here to talk about how important our future is the f our future our youth are to our community and the effects that the constant use of social media platforms are having on their mental health um are starting you know to show signs of being very detrimental to our community. Adolescent well-being and digital media use increasing on a day-to-day basis. our adolescents are just as exposed to social media platforms. You know, sometimes as a parent, um, you know, we can be out and my little guy wants to is is, you know, just a bout of boredom. First thing he does, asks for a phone. So, not
007only is it our not only is it our teens that have these accounts, but our adolescents are also being exposed to the same type of social media exposure. And if you notice here on this specific slide, ages between the ages of 14 to 16 have increased to about over 5 and 1 half to 6 hours. That's a lot of hours. specifically just using social media where they're they're losing the interaction with their peers. And I know I keep saying interaction with their peers, but I, you know, I think that that's what we're here for today is to talk about how we can give them some alternatives so that they're not so engaged with the phones and the social media accounts where they're more engaged being outdoors and finding things to do, interacting with family, friends,
008and their peers as well. And at the end of the presentation, I'll leave some time in case anyone wants to ask any questions. And also, I just wanted to add really quickly, I apologize I didn't say this in the beginning of the presentation, but I do have a resource table that has reference to um some of the things that we are talking about today. The US surgeon general advisory states, "We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis, one that we must urgently address. I remember back in back in the day when I was in middle school and high school and elementary school. Um I feel blessed to have actually had the experience to be in school without
009cell phones. You know, our youth are struggling with some with mental health. They're struggling with lack of social skills to be able to engage with our youth. And this exactly talks about why it's so important to stay on top of the social media platforms that our youth are engaging in because it has a direct correlation to mental health and how um detrimental it can be for their future. What so impacts on youth, right? What are some of the harms that we're seeing? Studies have shown the effects include sleep issues. You know, when they're up at all times of the day or all times of the night and they're just continuing to scroll on their phones, they're losing sleep. It's harder to fall asleep. You know, they have the screen right in front of them, keeping
010them awake instead of letting them get rest. But sleep issues. And we all know how important it is for to get a a a great night's rest. And not only for our mental health but our physical health as well. Feeling bad about your body. Eating disorders, disordered eating, negative negatively comparing yourself to others. Low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and self harm. Now, these that we just mentioned, they this is important to note that these are especially true for teenage girls. you know, constantly being on social media when you're struggling with any of these with any of these is is extremely hard for an adult. But I can imagine as a as a child, as an adolescent, as a teenager, just trying to fit in and finding their place, this really just compounds the issue. So, always
011being on that social media platform really um being exposed to videos upon videos, reals upon reals when struggling with these um can really have a really profound effect on our mood. Why so? Because our brain is developing, right? Their brain is developing. The the preffrontal cortex is responsible for decision making, calculating risk, assessing consequences, impulse control, emotional regulation. This part of the brain does not fully develop until the age 25. So this preffrontal cortex is really the part of the brain that is really taking um a I would say a hit in the development of our youth because it is affecting their development of really some important life skills that our youth continue to need as they develop all the way up until 25 when their prefrontal cortex is still developing. So with these being
012affected with with the prefrontal cortex being affected by these um you know by some of these issues, it really slows down the child's progression and development. So, it's important for us to, you know, um, try to keep these on the forefront when we're thinking about what are the things that can affect my child moving forward in the future. And these are some of the things important life skills like decision making um assessing consequences impulse control things that these are skills and tools that they need while in school while building and fostering relationships with their peers with families. So, this is all really connected and how the these um social media platforms can really take some disengagement away from our youth. So, some of the things that we'll talk about about what are the features that
013are more so addictive. These are the addictive design features. The algorithms, the infinite scroll, the autoplay, the time-sensitive content, notifications. All of these things are designed to really lure our youth in when using these apps. They are constantly scrolling through videos on infinite scroll. Sometimes you lose track. I myself sometimes can utilize my phone. you know, beyond a specific app. And then if I don't start to realize, um, I I say to myself, "Wow, I can't believe I just sat here for 30 minutes in and in in what felt like a zone just looking at videos or short videos of things that I have no idea that are irrelevant or I don't even remember. But that's what it's designed to do. It's designed to keep you there, to keep you stuck, to keep you engaged
014in in the in the social media platforms. So, really, really important, and we'll talk a little bit more about these as well, addictive design features like the infinite scroll like I mentioned. This way the content and ads never end. So you can really sit there for hours upon hours upon hours without any interruption and really just be scrolling in your phone versus being engaged with your, you know, your community with your peers. And this is one of the addictive design features that is most prominent across the board in a lot of these social media platforms that our youth are engaging in. It's a 3second delay in refreshing or swiping down feed builds craving and anticipation. So, you know, you scroll, you scroll. Sometimes you see it refresh and you see the little things spinning and
015more videos will come up. And that's what it's designed to do. It's designed to build anticipation for the next video. Tik Tok Tik Tok is very very um an app that a lot of the teens in uh adolescence are engaged in. Um, I myself has a I have a 13-year-old and I was quite alarmed when I realized that he told me that he doesn't really text people like on the phone like I text him. They use apps to communicate with each other. So that's one way of how a lot of these platforms are really just, you know, getting our youth to be so addicted to these platforms. It's quite alarming. Um, but it's something for us as parents and as adults, guardians, caretakers, whatever our role is to just kind of keep in the forefront
016that these are designed to get them, you know, to not be able to put their phones down. So sometimes, you know, we get frustrated when they're on their phones all day. But with a young mind, a young brain, these apps being designed to work that way, you know, sometimes you really have to stop and think about um that sometimes it's to no fault of their own of our youth, you know, but the more tools we have as as community members, as parents, as caretakers, as caregivers, grandparents, friends, family, the more we can better prepare our youth to not fall um created this type of um addiction. Another um feature, another addictive feature is autoplay. Autoplay such as a smooth transition. You don't even realize that the ad has changed. It's a constant autoplay of a
017feed for constant instant gratification. And if you notice, a lot of these videos are meant and designed to be short. So, they're short, but because they're short, we're constantly scrolling and it keeps them very addicted in in that moment. And it's very hard to disengage them. So this is another addictive feature that our um social media platforms that our youth are using really has found a way to get into the get into our youth. The time sensitive and fear of missing doubt. That's a big one, right? So a youth might you know a team might post a photo, post a video, post a live feed where they are constantly going back to see that instant gratification feel. going back to see how many likes have been um how many likes do I have, how many
018comments do I have, you know, and that alone um is quite alarming because you know this is not real world. It's not a real world. This is our real world and our our youth are being sucked into these platforms with this, you know, um fear of missing out. They constantly want to be going back into their social media platforms to be checking on notifications and comments. So, it's really it's that instant gratification, that fear of missing out, timesensitive. if someone posts something, they have to check it. Things like that. So if and if you leave the app, you'll miss out on the on this limited time content. So that's another way of really keeping them engaged. That is um kind of scary when we really start to think about how these apps are designed to
019do that to our young minds. um kind it very sad. So, non-stop notifications. I think this is probably personally my worst feature on my phone. It is I'm constantly being flooded with these non-stop notifications. Why? To keep me lured back in, right? To keep us lured back in. And when you're 13, when you're 11, when you're 10, when you're 17, and you're constantly constantly being distracted by these notifications, um, nine out of 10 times they're going to check it, right? They're they're young. They're easily distracted. And these things are done. These are 40 types of notifications are enabled by default. So you you get it in phone, you download download your social media platform apps and these are already designed to be default notifications. So they're already designed to distract us, distract our youth. So
020things to think about when we're having these conversations with our youth and encouraging them and educating them on how, you know, this is just one example of how it is set up to be a distraction. Then we have our social comparisons, which is tough for teens and youth. you know, they want the likes, they want the views, they want the comments, they want the beauty filters and the photo editing. So these platforms have been designed to um really keep them from keep them from, you know, being in real time, but really just being so emotionally connected to what the views are, what the likes are, what the comments are. So, it's important when we do give our youth access to these apps, it's also very important to, you know, just keep a check in or
021a monitor on how this is, if this is really making a profound effect on your downsides of these features. So cyber bullying which we all know um is it is prominent and existing with our youth. Cyber bullying is when you use technology to hurt or harm someone else with unwanted aggressive and repeated behavior. Texting, email, social media, online games, pictures. These are all forms of ways that our youth are being cyberbullied or cyber bullying sadly. So not only it's you know not only the texting but we have the emails and the bullying through the social media platforms. It's happening on online games and um pictures as well. Cyber bullying is against the law and can get you into serious trouble. It's very important for us to understand that if this is something that is happening
022um to someone that you know that and if they have trusted you in to tell you then please seek out a necessary resource for them because um cyber bullying can obviously affect our mental our mental health and the mental health of our youth and our adolescence as well. reasons why people cyberbully. Social pressure. It's it's it's tough out there right now, especially for, you know, for our young people. Um, it is it's it's a tough time. It's a tough time for them, you know, um, in in general. These are growing gears and being a victim of a cyber bully uh or being cyberbullied definitely can have detrimental effects on um on someone's mental health. So social pressure may be a reason why people are cyberbullied or to gain respect or popularity to get the attention
023or get a reaction from the person they are targeting. They do it as a joke. Okay, they do it as a joke, but um obviously for the victim of these cyber bullying, it's it's it's definitely not a joking matter, but this is one one of the uh things that they've expressed. They've done it as a joke. It was intended as a joke to show confidence, control, or power over others or some to get revenge on or cause humiliation to someone they dislike. And I just want everyone to know that's here that you can um I did bring some materials on cyber bullying. So if it is something that you would like to reference, there are materials at the door. Here we have a superintendent survey and this is a response of 171 superintendent, 130 of
024which have implemented a cell phone policy. Now, we'll talk a little bit about the study act and what that is, but 70% report students are being more engaged and attentive. 40% have reported better peer relationships. 82% report no drawbacks to implementing cell phone restrictions. Important things to remember. Social media is very detrimental to students self-worth and esteem and the ramifications are huge in terms of interpersonal relationships, threats, and even physical altercations. Last year, we started to see the phenomenon of fights being planned on social media, then filmed and posted to social media. Kids with access have been influenced by social media trends that involve risky and destructive behaviors. That's quite alarming when we think of our young our young community, our 13year-olds that have access that have been, you know, drawn into this type of
025um this type of behavior just utilizing a social media platform. things that as parents we don't think that you know our children are going to be engaged in or even being exposed to. But when we think about social media platforms, we need to think about the importance of not only what are some of the pros because there are definitely pros, you know, as an adult, but what are the cons? What are the cons? And a lot of that is a lot of that is what we've been talking about. Tons of cons that come with the um social media platforms at a young age at a very important crucial age where their brains are developing. They're their brains are developing in a not natural process if you really think about it because they're being exposed to
026things that they would have not necessarily been exposed to. The study act. What is the study act? And I have a hand up here. I'm just going to read a little bit before I talk about what's on the slide. The study act would mandate all public schools to have formal policies regarding the use of cell phones, tablets, and other personal electronic devices on school grounds and at school sponsored activities. Each policy must restrict students from physically accessing their personal electronic device devices during school hours. Accommodations may be granted. Schools would be required to have a policy educating students about the social, emotional, and physical harms of social media use. The study act put students and their mental health first. By restricting cell phones during the school day and raising the bar for social media companies,
027we are taking bold steps to create learning environments free from distraction and digital landscape that prioritizes the well-being of our youth. This bill is a commitment to both education and mental health for our young people, ensuring they have the tools to succeed without unnecessary harm. That is a quote right from our attorney our attorney general Andrea Joy Campbell, which she feels very very strongly about this. you know, our our schools school environments need to really feel like a learning engaging environment for our youth and it's hard when they have access to these um electronic devices be it cell phones, tablets or whatever the case is. It's distracting and we need to really get them engaging with their peers, engaging with their teaching teachers and engaging in the learning community as a whole. This mandates all
028public schools to establish policies on student use of electronic devices during school. So from right from bell to bell. Okay. Students will not have physical access to their devices during school hours. Accommodations will be made as needed. And the bill also calls on social media companies to implement changes that protect youth. For instance, age verification, reduction in addictive features. Now that makes sense, right? That makes sense. If there is a youth account, a youth account should have a reduction in addictive features, but they don't. So, age ratification, things of things of this nature is what really we're hoping to help raise the attention on, especially for towards social media companies. really hold them accountable for the detrimental effects that that it is having on on our youth. The cell phones and social media kits um
029social media and school kits model uh first one would be a model cell phone policy and it has clear rules even enforcement support for students and staff. Number two would be guide for creating community norms, education, and engaging families, students, and communities. Because let's all let's all, you know, be honest. If my teenager rides the bus to school, I feel safer with my teenager having his phone on him, riding the bus to school in case of an emergency. But does my teenager need his phone in school? I personally don't believe that he does. If it's an emergency, just like back in the old days when I was in high school and middle school and elementary school, you know, access used to use to use the phone. So there are ways that we can, you know,
030work together with our educators, with our schools to help support this so that hopefully we can see a little bit of a re-engagement in our youth, in their academics, in their peer relationships. Section one would be the policy, and that's examining popular cell phone policies. whe whether it would be a bellto bell off and away or limited use. Now I believe this is um per like the districts. I'm not sure if this is exactly across the board or uniform in every situation but I think certain districts are doing different things. Um then we have the model bell-to-bell policy which is a there's a sample here outlining the key components of a success successful policy. Considerations for choosing and implementing the policy that works best for your community. So it's not all going to be onesizefitsall
031for every school, for every, you know, for every student. Figure out what works for your community. Figure out what works for your child. Figure out what works for your family member or the youth in your lives that you care care deeply about. Figure out what might help them disengage from social media and engage with their peers or engage in with their academics so that we can better support their mental health moving forward. Section two, creating a community norm. Some sample community norms and considerations are showcasing what norms may look like, providing a starting point for communities. You know, it might be that um a particular school, particular district has a um you know, they know what their community is. They know what their student comm community is, but working together to find out what suits
032their students best. Um, that's what really this this is is really understanding what are the norms, what are the needs of your community, what are the needs of your student community and really finding a way to help them implement this. And you know, as a parent, I I support, you know, working with our educators, working with our schools, our our school districts, our school communities, because they are the ones that are seeing it on a day-to-day basis, and they're seeing how students and youth are disengaged from learning and also disengaged from peers. implementation framework from planning to launch or and and educating and engaging with all members of your community to establish shared expectations to support youth well-being. And I think a big a big piece of this as well is ask let's ask our
033youth let's ask our teams you know let's get some feedback from them get their voice let's hear from them about what they think would work because really we're we're here to implement this for their for their benefit. Let's really get them engaged in the conversation and in the framework to develop something as a community that they can all agree upon or you know as best agree upon community guidelines implementing digital media literacy when and how to incorporate how teachers can support digital digital media literacy but not also you know just teachers but us as well. Community, family, uh how families can support one another on digital media literacy, some key mindset shifts for educators to best support students. So, this is a little bit of the um choosing a curriculum and we can just skip
034that. So, we want to shift what's normal. What's normal right now is everyone has a phone, everyone has a specific social media platform account, everyone um is engaging through that. Let's try to shift some of these some of these norms so that um our youth can feel accepted when they're not necessarily so engaged in these platforms. What's considered normal in our society can change drastically in just a few years. In the US, at one point in time, it was normal to smoke on airplanes. It was normal to never wear their seat belts. It was normal to play football without wearing a helmet. Let's try to help our youth normalize the not the need for a cell phone um you know throughout their throughout their educational part of their day to not be engaged in the
035screen hours upon hours. Let's try to help our youth our youth community really accept that as a norm. cell phone use in school as a current norm that may change for the better. So, let's create a normal what? Let's create a healthier normal cell phone use during school that changes for the better that really helps to Excuse me. [Music] I apologize. It's kind of dry in here. So, really, let's really try to create a culture for our youth to to a a new norm for them, okay? a new norm, a new social media um culture for them to change for the better, bettering their mental health as a whole. some of the initiatives at the attorney general's office, which I am so proud to work on in a day-to-day basis. Um, knowing that I work
036for the attorney general, and these are the things that, you know, she's very engaged in and prioritizing in is um is amazing. social media policy, cell phone and social media in schools toolkit. Um, addressing hate in schools, youth educational diversion program regarding sexing, sharing sexually explicit digital images. So, these are all initiatives that the attorney general um is um very engaged in and this is a lot of the work that's coming out of our office. What can we do? What can we do to help create this new norm? To create a new norm that's healthier for our youth overall. Make informed choices about your own use. Organize with peers. Get involved with organizations and policy efforts to hold companies accountable. Spend time doing in-person offscreen activities. sports and I know um throughout the summer even
037though that you know the uh schools our schools are not in session I would continue to urge our families our community to make sure you're checking our uh the parent square app because I know that parent square does continuously um put information out of community events, different types of sports activities activities um throughout the summertime months to help re-engage our youth and keep them um off screen. And that looks like that this is the end of our presentation. And I really just wanted to just kind of recap by saying that, you know, we as we as adults have such an important role to play in this in this initiative. And um it's more so that we really want to help our youth create a normal um a new norm, a new healthy norm for them.
038We see the detrimental effects that social media have on us. And like we talked about earlier in the presentation, when we're talking about how our youth are developing and their brain is developing up until the age of 25, these important things that they're losing out on because of the onscreen um onscreen gratification and constant grat constant instant gratification that they're looking for on on these um social media platforms really does have a detrimental effect. as as you know as a mom I just want to you know just say as a mom and as a community member I I I see the effects and I think it's time that we try to work together and create a a learning environment that only not only challenges our our youth educationally but you know um their mental health
039makes sure that it's a safe making sure that it's a safe place for for all our youth Thank you. And um thank you and have a great night.