Note: content contained in the below post may be confronting for some people.
Yesterday, a beautiful 12 year old boy named Archie Battersby died in a London hospital in the most tragic circumstances. Archie sustained a brain injury believed to have been caused when he had taken part in an online challenge known as 'the passout challenge', and he accidentally asphyxiated himself. He was found unresponsive with a ligature around his neck by his mum, rushed to hospital and placed on life support on April 7. Archie's family had been fighting for his life sustaining treatment to continue, however, lost their appeal after the High Court ruled it was in Archie’s best interests to turn off life support. The heartbreaking image of Archie's angelic face as he lay unconscious connected to tubes, had been beamed around the world and had captured our hearts. We all hoped to see his young eyes open, and for all that was wrong to be right once more. As the news of Archie's passing broke, there was an outpouring of grief, and a sense that we have reached a dark place.
Archie Battersbee pictured on life support in a London hospital prior to his death on Saturday 6th August 2022
Archie's story represents a saddening pattern of brain injuries in children, resulting from the popularity of the passout challenge. As described in a 2018 Times article, children as young as 8 years old have been tempted to try these dangerous social media challenges, and tragically, have paid with their lives. A family in Wisconsin, US is attempting to sue TikTok after their 9-year-old daughter died. On February 26 2021, Arriani Jaileen Arroyo died of asphyxiation, after her family were forced to turn off her life support, when it was deemed she would not survive the brain injury she sustained from taking part in the passout challenge. The notion that social media use is bad for children can now be proven with research, which shows it has dangerous impacts on health and well-being.
Social media use poses serious risks to the mental health of children and teens.
Suicide is a leading cause of death for young people and is increasingly linked to cyberbullying and social media use. A 2019 study in JAMA phsychiatry studied social media's impact on children's psychological wellbeing, and concluded for teens in the US, there was a heightened risk of mental health issues associated with social media use, which became evident when usage was as little as 30 minutes per day. In the longest study to date on the effects of social media on teens, Brigham Young University (BYU) research found:
'There is a correlation between time spent on social media and suicidality risk among teenage girls.'
Add in the risk of cyber bullying, and as we can see from the statistics below, it paints a sobering picture:
A 2019 report by the CDC found that in the US, suicide was the second leading cause of death for people aged 10-24. Suicide rates among children from 10 to 14 years old increased 56 percent from 2007 to 2017.
In a recent survey by McAfee, Australia ranked second only to the US, out of 10 countries globally, for prevalence of cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is an epidemic in Australia:
53% of young Aussies reported being cyberbullied
79% of children aged 10-18 have been bullied on YouTube
Only 21% of Australian teenagers reported online harassment to an educational institution
Less than half of Aussie teens that were bullied online spoke to their family or friends about it.
These figures indicate we are in the midst of a crisis which is having a devastating impact on our kids. High profile cases of suicide after cyberbullying include: Hannah Smith, 14, from Leicestershire UK; Dolly Everett, 14, from Katherine Australia; Brandy Vela, 18, from Houston USA; and Megan Meier, 13, from Missouri USA. All were relentlessly bullied online, and driven to end their lives. These are but a few of the total number of children and teens tragically lost.
Meta (formerly Facebook), is facing a barrage of lawsuits.
Meta (formerly Facebook), is facing a barrage of lawsuits for eating disorders, depression, and suicides among children and teens. Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center, has filed more than half a dozen of the lawsuits against various social media giants, and says: 'these products are causing grievous harm to our kids'. 'In what universe can a company have a product that directs this kind of vile filth, this dangerous content to kids — and get away with it?’
Whilst the question posed by Bergman is a rhetorical one, it's one we must direct our urgent attention towards answering. It was revealed in 2021 that Facebook were aware it’s platforms were damaging the mental health of young people. This became apparent when the Wall Street Journal published several stories about Facebook’s knowledge of the harm Instagram is doing to the well-being of teenagers, particularly teenage girls. This expose was enabled by the courage of Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee and whistleblower. The WSJ expose cast light on Facebook’s internal research that showed:
'The social media giant knew how its Instagram app harmed the mental health of teens, but management chose not to intervene.'
Our acceptance of Meta's strategy to look the other way, and to devalue human life, is a shocking reflection on where we've arrived as a society. How did we get here?
Social media has stolen our ability to focus on, and solve big problems.
Social media is distracting, even addictive, because it was designed to be. It's entirely intentional. Some of the smartest brains in the tech world designed the algoriths to keep you captivated by learning what you will most emotively respond to, and feeding you more and more of it. Endlessly. The more triggered you become, the more you scroll, the more money you generate for big tech.
A paragraph from writer Johann Hari's book ‘Stolen Focus' helps describe the deliberate phenomenon of social media distraction: '(social media was)... deliberately designed by the smartest people in the world to maximally grab and maximally hold our attention... this design is not inevitable....The way our tech works now to corrode our attention was and remains a choice - by Silicone Valley, and by the wider society that lets them do it.'
The latter part of this statement is perhaps the most troubling. As a society, and individually we allow this to happen. Behavioural conditioning compels us to interact with social media in such a way that it manipulates our consciousness. The outcome is the exponential growth of the social media powerhouses behind the screens. Each scroll and click on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat, or YouTube, is ammassing exponential profits and market capitalisation for their owners: Meta, ByteDance, Snap, and Alphabet (Google).
It's not the profits I take exception to, it's the moral bankruptcy. With 3.65 billion users worldwide, Meta has made a conscious decision to choose profits over moral action. They choose to turn a blind eye to the human cost of their activities, even when they know it is resulting in the deaths of children and teens. They do it because they can. We are distracted, and we are desensitised to real threats, such as climate change and nuclear war, so conditioned are we to inaction. This has enabled our moral compass to be manipulated. We will continue to be distracted from tackling big problems, so long as we continue to be ruled by our screens.
'We have to solve this first, or we won't be able to solve anything else.'
Johann Hari
Just as it’s illegal to supply cigarettes to minors; just as pool owners must fence pools to make them safe; so too it must be a legal requirement for social media giants to ensure their business models advocate for and uphold the safety of children and teens. No company or group should ever maintain an unmitigated stronghold over human consciousness. Nor should they be immune from the charge of gross negligence if the use of their product results in a human death toll.
A movement is urgently needed to alter the impact of social media on our society.
With each historical injustice society has ever surpassed, change was only ever brought about when moral outrage grew strong enough, and collectively, people decided to take tangible action to force the change. Such is the sticky web we find ourselves in, it will take a persistent movement to force change and protect us from the exploitative design and damaging impact of social media. It’s time to take back our focus, and take steadfast steps towards making social media use safe. This will only happen through forcing big tech to change their business model. We must begin to value focus, and pay attention. Steps we can enact today to make a contribution to this change are:
1. Reducing our screen time on social media apps by self imposing lock out periods and minimising scrolling sessions;
2. Discontinue our reliance on Instagram and Facebook for social interactions, instead aiming for face to face interactions, or a text or a phone call instead;
3. Empowering ourselves and others to raise awareness of the need as a society to choose a new direction.
'A movement of all of us saying no, we don't accept this any longer. We can choose it, and we have to fight for it.'
James Williams, former Google employee and author of Stand Out of Our Light
In honour of Archie’s memory, and in memory of every beautiful soul that has succumbed to the tragic impacts of social media, I’m making a pledge to make a difference, and to be the change.
Be your most natural self xx
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