Have your school report Tik Tok to pay you for the psychologist

Today we know many things about social networks.

We know, for example, that they can alter electoral processes.

This is not me saying this but the $725 million Meta has agreed to pay to compensate Facebook users whose data was leaked to Cambridge Analytica.

We also know that they harm the mental health of adolescents.

A conclusion that again is not mine but from Meta's own reports, among others.

More and more studies show that its use is related to the increase in suicidal ideation among young people and its responsibility in the death of several minors has been demonstrated.

We know a lot about networks, but until now we had no idea what to do with all that we knew.

No democratic government has been able to regulate or limit the power that the corporations that design and market these networks exercise over their citizens and their children.

Until now.

I say this after the Seattle Public Schools have sued various digital platforms in a very smart way.

These schools do not denounce Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat for harming the mental health of children (which also) but because of the damage that their products have caused in the minds of their students (attention deficit, anxiety , depression, eating disorders) has forced these schools to make a specific investment to continue successfully training these minors.

Thus, these schools have had to invest a lot of money in specific training for teachers, hiring psychologists, updating textbooks and other costs attributable to the mental health crisis caused by social networks.

And now, of course,

They demand that those responsible loosen the wallet.

A proposal that, in addition to being pioneering and intelligent, is easily replicable.

So much so that similar processes have already started in New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana or Arkansas.

The question is what are we waiting for in Europe?

And more specifically in Spain.

There will be those who say that the networks are only harmful if the use made of them is abusive, but since they are designed to provoke addiction in their users, we must assume that among children, their mere use leads to abuse.

And once the classrooms are flooded with students who go “Tik Tok” or “Instagram” posts up to their eyebrows, with daily consumption that exceeds four and five hours, it happens that there is a lack of educators and social workers in the centers, in addition of psychologists, who are lacking everywhere.

Self-injury multiplies

suicidal ideation rises, conduct disorders grow and insomnia causes that there are no children awake in the classroom.

Meanwhile, injured minors do not have money to go to a psychologist, the vast majority of families cannot afford this expense either, and the States lack cash to finance the mental health crisis that technology is causing.

The solution?

Ask your school to report Tik Tok to pay for the psychologist you need so much.

the vast majority of families cannot afford this expense either, and the States lack cash to finance the mental health crisis that technology is causing.

The solution?

Ask your school to report Tik Tok to pay for the psychologist you need so much.

the vast majority of families cannot afford this expense either, and the States lack cash to finance the mental health crisis that technology is causing.

The solution?

Ask your school to report Tik Tok to pay for the psychologist you need so much.

In the meantime: stop holding parents accountable for our children's use of technology.

Or to require us to monitor adolescent usage time with all sorts of applications that violate the most basic privacy.

The networks have to be safe for minors, just as the streets have to be.

We can't follow our kids to school any more than we can track their entire social history.

Networks are not bad per se.

Harmful ones are their owners who refuse to verify the age of their users, for example.

Thus, children know they are welcome from early childhood in social spaces not suitable for minors, from social networks to hard porn platforms or

of appointment.

They only have to meet one condition: lie about their age.

Technically it would be possible to verify it —just as identity is verified in banking applications, for example—, but it is not done because the vulnerability of minors is profitable.

No network is willing to lose millions of impulsive, idle and easily manipulated users.

It is true that exploitation and child labor are not new in post-industrial societies, but social networks are allowing it to be free.

Thus, the new working day for millions of girls and boys consists of not leaving a screen for at least four hours a day, seven days a week, including night shifts.

The children no longer play, the children invoice, that Shakira would sing.

And while there is no way to return lost childhoods, it is time for technology companies to return, at least, the money it will cost to cure them.

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