Dear Santa:
I realize it’s a busy time for you, what with supervising elves and finishing toys. But I hope you can look at my letter because — and I don’t exaggerate — it concerns 46 million young people. And they all spend nearly five hours a day spinning through social media sites from Facebook to Instagram to TikTok.
Nearly 23 million of those kids have been cyber bullied, cyber stalked, hit on, lured, sent explicit photos, revenge porned, impersonated and trolled. Many are traumatized, depressed, lonely and anxious. It is bad, Santa. Not a ho-ho-ho moment.
These young victims have their own language to share their miseries -— when they harm themselves, it’s hash tagged #blithe or #secretsociety123. Eating disorders get a #thinspo or #proana. This harassed generation talks about doxxing, swatting, grooming, predation, sextortion and catfishing. If you have an elf-nerd, he can translate those. None of them are good.
An engineer who worked for Facebook for many years recently went public — he’s called a whistleblower — because he couldn’t stand it any longer. He told the U.S. Senate about the abuses he saw. He declared: “It is likely the largest-scale sexual harassment of teens to have ever happened, and one that clearly calls for action.”
A 14-year-old girl from Washington explains: “I have been bullied many times. It makes me not want to live in this world anymore.” A girl from Minnesota, also 14, writes: “I was bullied, stalked, and harassed, and began to cut myself.” I suspect these kinds of letters never come to you and the Mrs. By the way, regards to her.
I know you are all about the kids, Santa, so I hope you can help. The kids are being harmed. The White House, World Health Organization, United Nations, U.S. Surgeon General, Congress — all have heard the horror stories.
One Senator, Chris Murphy, Democrat from Connecticut, who has two teen boys, warns: “The alarm bells about social media’s devastating impact on kids have been sounding for a long time.”
But here we are, Santa: We have no federal law to stop it.
How do we get private companies to behave the way they should? We can plead and berate from the bully pulpit. Or we can pass a law to demand they do the right thing. And increasingly the weight of public opinion is with those of us who want regulation.
“It is time,” the Executive Director of Fairplay for Kids, Josh Golin, told me. “We have to do something.”
More from Rob Miraldi:Can the First Amendment bend to help teens fixated on social media?
And that is where we are today, Santa. Social Media, the bogeyman of the day, persists in doing bad things to our children and grandchildren, luring them to dangerous places, hooking them up with predators, and making money off children’s worst instincts.
But there is a real glimmer of hope: The American Senate is about to debate the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act, prohibiting those under 13 from using social media, and stopping Facebook & Co. from using algorithms to send unwary teens to harmful places that worsen their problems. Defining social media will be one real challenge.
Santa, you do age verification, no? You would not give 13-year-olds toys that could harm them. Maybe you can advise the social media titans; they are not doing much on the age verification thing.
And, I’ll admit, it’s a tricky problem.
Do you get cable TV in the North Pole? If not, you missed whistleblower Arturo Bejar’s testimony to Congress last month. For six years he was responsible for keeping Facebook users safe. He found 25% of young teens were bullied in a typical week but Instagram falsified the numbers. And now he is disgusted and angry.
“There has been extensive harm happening to teenagers,” Bejar said, “and the leadership has been aware of it, but they have chosen not to address the problems. They need to be compelled by regulators and policy makers.”
It’s a rare moment, Santa. Forty-nine senators from BOTH parties agree: something must be done. Attorney generals from 42 states have sued the big companies. Right now, Golin told me, “Social media companies have a blanket get-out-of-jail-free card.”
What worries Golin most, Santa — as a big gift-giver you need to consider this one — is how addicted young people are to social media.
“It upsets sleep. Undermines school work. They don’t feel good. They are addicted, powerless on their own,” he says.
But there are ways to limit screen time — parents, government and tech companies can ally. You could join the cause, Santa.
We're suing:Facebook, Instagram algorithms intentionally harm kids, but Meta won't stop. We will fight back
The U.S. Congress will squabble over which regulations make most sense, and the Big Tech titans will push to maximize profits — but we have a good chance of getting a decent law. A civil libertarian or a free-enterprise conservative will sue and assert this law violates the First Amendment. It does not. Speech exceptions to protect young people have long been upheld by the courts.
We’ve established safety standards for cars, car seats, medication, baby formula, kids’ toys.
We can model on these. Golin adds, “The First Amendment protects speech, not platform design.”
Instagram has been widely advertising that it “supports federal legislation that puts parents in charge of teen app downloads.”
We will see what that means.
'Children are dying':Prince Harry, Duchess Meghan speak out on social media's effect on mental health
So why am I writing you, Santa? To say, Happy Holidays, but to ask you to join the campaign: the biggest threat young people face today is Big Tech companies that refuse to stop harming. You could stop giving kids the toys that can be used to harm. Tell Amazon you won’t do business with them if they don’t join you.
Golin’s advice: “Change how kids interact; regulate the platforms.”
The moment is now — Christmas and the regulation moment. Santa. I’ll leave chocolate chip cookies on the mantel. Text me when you will be arriving.
Rob Miraldi’s First Amendment writing has won numerous awards. He taught journalism at the State University of New York for many years. Twitter: @miral98; email: rob.miraldi@gmail.com
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