Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the supposed to do? Ban photos of pretty girls? Booze is bad for girls, smoking too. Gotta live in the world.

Teenage girls can't buy either of those things. Facebook could raise the age requirement from 13 to 16 or even 18.

Well, then they'll lie on their account, kinda like some of them lie even now about being 13.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And video game makers know their games are horribly addictive to teen boys. What else is new.

Video games are addictive, but the harm is that they're a waste of time. They don't encourage self-harm, eating disorders, or psychopathic bullying behavior.

Right, they don't encourage self-harm, but many encourage harm to others. When was the last time you saw a video game?

you all seem to think you just invented everything. You think that before this everyone just felt great about themselves and there were no anorexic girls? We had Cosmo, and Seventeen and Vogue and MTV to give us unrealistic images. Instagram and Facebook didn't invent it and aren't the cause of it. The problem is women and the way in which we have done our part to perpetuate this misogyny via self loathing.

All the things that these girls are worried about are things that are judged and enforced and reinforced almost primarily and most harshly by other women. Most men don't care if you look exactly like JLo. They don't care what you wear and if your shoes are cute. THey don't care if your brows are on point. They don't care about visible panty lines. They do not see us through the same lenses as we see ourselves and each other. So we can blame Instagram we can blame the patriarchy but really the problem is ours to fix. Doesn't matter how we got here, this is where we are. Women and only women can fix this.

I hate to make my family sound like yokels — but I've noticed parents think they're "monitoring" their tweens and teens' use for pedophiles and their kids posting illicit photos — totally oblivious to the fact the imagery and messaging their kids are viewing is warping their minds.

For example, my brother and SIL allow their tween daughter to follow all these disgusting rappers, Cardi B, Kardashians, and all the rest. As long as my niece isn't posting filth, they think it's under control.

Nazis couldn't dream up this sort of propaganda. Radio, TV and newspapers have nothing on every kid in the world having a phone in their pocket they stare at for upwards of 15 hours a day! A non-stop bombardment of rigged filth into the developing minds.

History will not view Facebook kindly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the supposed to do? Ban photos of pretty girls? Booze is bad for girls, smoking too. Gotta live in the world.

Teenage girls can't buy either of those things. Facebook could raise the age requirement from 13 to 16 or even 18.

Yeah, I don’t know any parents who hand over an endless supply of beer and cigarettes to their 13 year olds, or younger, and say good luck out there. Sadly, raising the age requirement isn’t going to do anything unless they’re going to come to your house and check ID before you can download an app. Pandora’s box is way open here.

It's also harmful to adults.

Regarding the comparisons to alcohol or smoking, the problem is that the potential harms are not disclosed. Imagine if alcohol or cigarettes were marketed directly to teenagers as a cool, fun thing to do, with disclose to those teens (or their parents) that these substances are very dangerous and could kill them or cause longterm health problems? Actually, you don't have to imagine because that's how it used to be, until as a society we realized how dangerous that was and decided to regulate how these things were marketed and restrict their access to underage children.

I'm a full grown adult and social media was such a negative influence in my life, on my relationships, and on my mental health that I had to treat it the way an alcoholic treats alcohol. My social media use was out of control and was either a major contributing cause, or THE cause, of a serious depressive episode that involved suicidal thoughts. Of course this isn't the same for everyone, just as not everyone who drinks alcohol becomes an alcoholic. But the risks are right there and yet we don't treat them as a serious threat to children or adults, because we have this very outdated view that social media is "just a platform" and we ignore how these apps deploy methods designed to addict users in a negative way.

If Facebook actually cared about the mental well being of users, they would do things like:

- Give users more transparent control of how their posts or comments appear in other user's newsfeeds
- Make likes and even many comments private info that only a user can see (so there would be no comparison of likes and comments)
- Never disclose user activities to other users as a rule (like the way Instagram will disclose that another user has viewed your stories)
- Have safeguards in place that will remind users when they've been on the app for a long time or engaging in addictive behavior like checking multiple times in an hour, or looking at the same user profiles over and over. Even a pop up that says stuff like "You've checked this profile 5x today -- are you sure you want to check again?" would go a long way towards making users more aware of how they use the apps and the impact it's having on their mental health.

They don't want to do this because this addictive, obsessive behavior, rooted in low self esteem and a desire to be liked, is their bread and butter. It what gets and keeps people hooked, which is necessary for them to profit off of user info and advertising. These companies are evil, much more so than alcohol and tobacco companies even when they used to lie about the negative impacts of their products, because at least it was always clear what the product was. Facebook has successfully convinced people that the product is the platform when in reality the product is the user.

Anonymous wrote:What are the supposed to do? Ban photos of pretty girls? Booze is bad for girls, smoking too. Gotta live in the world.

Teenage girls can't buy either of those things. Facebook could raise the age requirement from 13 to 16 or even 18.

Anonymous wrote:And video game makers know their games are horribly addictive to teen boys. What else is new.

Video games are addictive, but the harm is that they're a waste of time. They don't encourage self-harm, eating disorders, or psychopathic bullying behavior.

And video game makers know their games are horribly addictive to teen boys. What else is new.

Anonymous wrote:Guess parents should stop giving their kids access to something that is not appropriate or developed with kids in mind. Its not like parents haven’t been warned repeatedly.

But then the parents would have to put down THEIR phones. . .

Guess parents should stop giving their kids access to something that is not appropriate or developed with kids in mind. Its not like parents haven’t been warned repeatedly.

What are the supposed to do? Ban photos of pretty girls? Booze is bad for girls, smoking too. Gotta live in the world.

Same as allowing young sons become addicted to video games, I do not understand why nearly every American parent lets this app harm and manipulate their tween daughters.