Jim Steyer
CEO and Founder | Dad of four
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Common Sense Media has joined the Dove Self-Esteem Project's Campaign for Kids' Online Safety in its efforts to pass the Kids Online Safety Act in Congress.
Holding Social Media Accountable for Its Role in the Youth Mental Health Crisis
Common Sense Media has joined the Dove Self-Esteem Project's Campaign for Kids' Online Safety in its efforts to pass the Kids Online Safety Act in Congress.
Topics:
California
Federal Legislation
Online Privacy and Safety
Research and Studies
Media and Body Image
In 2021, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed to the public and to an audience of Congress members that Instagram was well aware of the impact it was having on the body image and mental health of some of its most impressionable users. And yet the company took no action to limit that harm.
New research from Dove reveals that 8 in 10 youth mental health specialists say that social media is fueling a mental health crisis in young people. And our own research at Common Sense shows that teen girls spend over two hours a day on YouTube and TikTok, and 90 minutes a day on other platforms.
The good news is that today, the momentum has never been stronger when it comes to making social media a safer, healthier place for kids. At Common Sense, we've been working for years at both the state and federal levels to hold platforms accountable for the harms they can cause to kids' mental health. Our Healthy Young Minds campaign launched last month to tackle the youth mental health crisis head-on. And now we are partnering with the Dove Self-Esteem Project's Campaign for Kids' Online Safety to advance the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bipartisan piece of legislation that will be introduced to Congress in the coming weeks. The bill is designed to impose responsibility on online platforms and equip children and parents with tools to stay safe.
Other campaign partners include Parents Together, and we all came together last week in Los Angeles to kick off the initiative. The event, A Call for Kids' Online Safety: A Dove Forum for Change, also featured a number of young people and their parents who shared their deeply personal stories about body image, eating disorders, and mental health.
Moderator Nayeema Raza opened the event by asking the audience of young people to stand if any of the statements she shared about social media were true for them. Questions ranged from "Do you feel like you scroll social media all day?" to "Do you want to change the way you look because of social media?" And by the last statement, nearly the entire room was on its feet—a powerful message about how social media affects kids' lives and identities.
Young people in the audience shared some powerful stories. Delilah talked about how searching for healthy lifestyle tips to share with her dad, who had been diagnosed with cancer, led her down a path of dangerous diet and health misinformation. Jameson shared how the comments and content they saw on social media while trying to celebrate their identity as a queer person made them believe that they were "being a person wrong." Nohemi found herself comparing her accomplishments to others while trying to stay connected to friends and family during the pandemic, and felt she kept coming up short.
All of these stories together solidified one important point: The pressure to stay safe on social media falls too heavily on young people, and it's time for all of us to level up our calls for systemic change. KOSA will require social media companies to disable addictive product features as a default and allow young people to opt out of algorithmic recommendations. The bill would also make social media platforms legally responsible for proactively preventing and mitigating harms to young people online, such as content promoting self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, and bullying.
Real change requires partnership, advocacy, and a commitment to do the work on the ground. We applaud Dove for stepping up in support of KOSA. It's our hope that through this partnership and our other organizational efforts, we can make that statement true for every young person who uses social media today and in the future.
Watch Dove's new campaign film, The Cost of Beauty: A Dove Film, and sign the petition to get KOSA passed.
In 2021, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed to the public and to an audience of Congress members that Instagram was well aware of the impact it was having on the body image and mental health of some of its most impressionable users. And yet the company took no action to limit that harm.
New research from Dove reveals that 8 in 10 youth mental health specialists say that social media is fueling a mental health crisis in young people. And our own research at Common Sense shows that teen girls spend over two hours a day on YouTube and TikTok, and 90 minutes a day on other platforms.
The good news is that today, the momentum has never been stronger when it comes to making social media a safer, healthier place for kids. At Common Sense, we've been working for years at both the state and federal levels to hold platforms accountable for the harms they can cause to kids' mental health. Our Healthy Young Minds campaign launched last month to tackle the youth mental health crisis head-on. And now we are partnering with the Dove Self-Esteem Project's Campaign for Kids' Online Safety to advance the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bipartisan piece of legislation that will be introduced to Congress in the coming weeks. The bill is designed to impose responsibility on online platforms and equip children and parents with tools to stay safe.
Other campaign partners include Parents Together, and we all came together last week in Los Angeles to kick off the initiative. The event, A Call for Kids' Online Safety: A Dove Forum for Change, also featured a number of young people and their parents who shared their deeply personal stories about body image, eating disorders, and mental health.
Moderator Nayeema Raza opened the event by asking the audience of young people to stand if any of the statements she shared about social media were true for them. Questions ranged from "Do you feel like you scroll social media all day?" to "Do you want to change the way you look because of social media?" And by the last statement, nearly the entire room was on its feet—a powerful message about how social media affects kids' lives and identities.
Young people in the audience shared some powerful stories. Delilah talked about how searching for healthy lifestyle tips to share with her dad, who had been diagnosed with cancer, led her down a path of dangerous diet and health misinformation. Jameson shared how the comments and content they saw on social media while trying to celebrate their identity as a queer person made them believe that they were "being a person wrong." Nohemi found herself comparing her accomplishments to others while trying to stay connected to friends and family during the pandemic, and felt she kept coming up short.
All of these stories together solidified one important point: The pressure to stay safe on social media falls too heavily on young people, and it's time for all of us to level up our calls for systemic change. KOSA will require social media companies to disable addictive product features as a default and allow young people to opt out of algorithmic recommendations. The bill would also make social media platforms legally responsible for proactively preventing and mitigating harms to young people online, such as content promoting self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, and bullying.
Real change requires partnership, advocacy, and a commitment to do the work on the ground. We applaud Dove for stepping up in support of KOSA. It's our hope that through this partnership and our other organizational efforts, we can make that statement true for every young person who uses social media today and in the future.
Watch Dove's new campaign film, The Cost of Beauty: A Dove Film, and sign the petition to get KOSA passed.
