There has been quite a bit of research conducted around the negative health impact that social media might have on younger users. Scientists have recently tried to step up their efforts in this regard by sending an open letter to Zuckerberg calling on him and his company Meta to be more transparent on the impact that they have on adolescent mental health in general because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up spurring the company to take these matters more seriously.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that these scientists aren’t just asking Meta to release more data. Rather, they are also trying to make it so that this data can be verified, vetted and analyzed by independent researchers. Allowing third party researchers to analyze data is important with all things having been considered and taken into account. After all, they would be far less inclined to view or portray this data positively because they would not be beholden to the company that said data is coming from.
Facebook’s own research has indicated that Instagram in particular can cause body image issues among teens along with a wide range of other problems. The release of this data is definitely a step in the right direction, but suffice it to say that there is still a long way to go before these platforms can be considered safe for minors to any extent at all.
Meta has so far not made its research methods public, nor has it released complete information that any researchers can use. It’s high time for this company to start fulfilling its moral obligations for its users after having already done so much damage that might be impossible to reverse in the short term.
Read next: Frances Haugen states that Facebook doesn’t have enough employees to tackle the misinformation from other languages, Meta disagrees
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that these scientists aren’t just asking Meta to release more data. Rather, they are also trying to make it so that this data can be verified, vetted and analyzed by independent researchers. Allowing third party researchers to analyze data is important with all things having been considered and taken into account. After all, they would be far less inclined to view or portray this data positively because they would not be beholden to the company that said data is coming from.
Facebook’s own research has indicated that Instagram in particular can cause body image issues among teens along with a wide range of other problems. The release of this data is definitely a step in the right direction, but suffice it to say that there is still a long way to go before these platforms can be considered safe for minors to any extent at all.
Meta has so far not made its research methods public, nor has it released complete information that any researchers can use. It’s high time for this company to start fulfilling its moral obligations for its users after having already done so much damage that might be impossible to reverse in the short term.
Read next: Frances Haugen states that Facebook doesn’t have enough employees to tackle the misinformation from other languages, Meta disagrees