Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt presented a forceful analysis of the damage smartphones and social media are doing to our cognition, our civic fabric, and our children's wellbeing, while calling for renewed action to ward off their effects, in the latest of MIT's Compton Lectures on Wednesday. 'Around the world, people are getting diminished,' Haidt said. 'Less intelligent, less happy, less competent. And it's happening very fast ' My argument is that if we continue with current trends as AI is coming in, it's going to accelerate. The decline of humanity is going to accelerate.' Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business and the author of the recent bestseller 'The Anxious Generation,' which suggests that the widespread adoption of social media in the 2010s has been especially damaging to young women, making them prone to anxiety and depression. But as Haidt has continued to examine the effects of social media on society, he has started focusing on additional issues. Our inability to put our phones away, our compulsion to check social media, and the way we spend hours a day watching short-form videos, may be causing problems that go far beyond any rise in anxiety and depression....

Over the past few months, several countries have announced plans to restrict social media access for children and teens. Australia became the first to implement such measures at the end of last year, setting a precedent that other countries are now closely watching. Australia's regulations, along with other countries' proposals, aim to reduce the pressures and risks that young users may face on social media, which include cyberbullying, addiction, mental health issues, and exposure to predators. Of course, there are concerns about privacy regarding invasive age verification and excessive government intervention. Critics, including Amnesty Tech, have said such bans are ineffective and that they ignore the realities of younger generations. Despite this, many nations are moving ahead with proposed legislation. Australia became the world's first country to ban social media for children under 16 in December 2025. The ban blocks children from using Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, and Kick. It notably doesn't include WhatsApp or YouTube Kids....

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in court on Wednesday in a landmark trial aiming to determine if the tech giant's social media applications are addictive and harmful to teens and kids. The trial, taking place in LA Superior Court, already revealed that Meta's own research indicated that parental supervision couldn't prevent teens from compulsive use of social media, and teens who faced traumatic life experiences were even more inclined to overuse social media. Lawyers for the plaintiff, a 20-year-old who goes by her initials KGM, questioned Zuckerberg this week about whether Instagram employees were given goals to increase daily app usage. The Meta CEO had said during an earlier congressional hearing that this was not the case, the AP noted, but a 2015 email chain presented as evidence in the trial showed Zuckerberg pushing to increase users' time spent in app by 12%. Zuckerberg was also asked about Instagram's use of beauty filters, which Meta's own experts said should be banned when it comes to teens, as well as internal documents with Meta's estimates of how many children under the age of 13 were on the platform. One Meta document from 2018 stated that, as of 2015, 4 million children under 13 had Instagram accounts, including roughly 30% of children aged 10-12 in the U.S., for instance....

An internal research study at Meta dubbed 'Project MYST' created in partnership with the University of Chicago, found that parental supervision and controls ' such as time limits and restricted access ' had little impact on kids' compulsive use of social media. The study also found that kids who experienced stressful life events were more likely to lack the ability to moderate their social media use appropriately. This was one of the notable claims revealed during testimony at the social media addiction trial that began last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The plaintiff in the lawsuit is identified by her initials 'KGM' or her first name, 'Kaley.' She, along with her mother and others joining the case, is accusing social media companies of creating 'addictive and dangerous' products that led the young users to suffer anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia, eating disorders, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and more. The case is now one of several landmark trials that will take place this year, which accuse social media companies of harming children. The results of these lawsuits will impact these companies' approach to their younger users and could prompt regulators to take further action....