Social media threatens teen mental health, expert says

DAVOS, Switzerland – Prioritizing youth mental health instead of social media growth in the U.S. could impact GDP, but is vital for the health of society, said Center for Humane Technology co-founder Tristan Harris.

Why it matters: Harris likens society to a body with an inside that's "deteriorating," as more government officials and critics increasingly warn against social media's negative impact.

• "It's almost like on the outside [of tech-enabled countries] you see these bigger muscles … [but] on the inside you have lung failure, heart failure, and brain failure because the inside health of our society is deteriorating," Harris said.

Axios' Sara Fischer moderated a conversation with Harris in Davos. The Jan. 22 discussion was sponsored by Pinterest.

Big Tech's current profit models rely on endless scrolling, leading to teens getting addicted, Harris said.

• Harris said there's a lack of incentives for Big Tech companies to improve youth mental health.
• "You can have all the content moderation you want. [But if tech companies] still have business models that maximize for engagement, they're going to find infinite new design patterns that keep people addicted, scrolling, posting content, with maximum reach regardless of whether it's good or bad," Harris said.

Regulation and lawsuits could help incentivize tech companies to not release AI chatbots to minors in a time where AI has been shown to sometimes exacerbate vulnerabilities among teens.

• Harris said safety-focused lawsuits, such as those against companion app Character.AI, could help incentivize companies to not market to teens, which can create "digital attachment disorders."
• "I would say that this actually has bipartisan appeal. … We have to actually have this change happen because I'm telling you our societies will not be able to survive otherwise," Harris added.

Friction point: Regulation for tech companies has been an ongoing point of contentious debate, partly because of the desire for the U.S. to maintain competitiveness against China, Harris said.

• "If we regulate our biggest tech companies, we're going to lose to China. But we have to see that to the degree we're in a race [with China], we're [also] in a race for the holistic health and long-term survival of our societies, not for just having the biggest muscles," Harris said.

Sponsored content:

In a View From the Top sponsored segment, Pinterest's chief legal and business affairs officer Wanji Walcott announced that they are going to be the first tech company to support phone-free schools.

• Pinterest will have a pop-up on their platform for teens when they're on the app during the school day to remind them that they're in school and to put the phone down,Walcott said.
• "We certainly want to do our part as we think about, 'how do we ensure better youth mental health outcomes? How do we ensure that this next generation is not just kind of stuck to the phone and kind of scrolling and scrolling,'" she added.