AG Wilson expresses support for Congressional hearings addressing youth social media use

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - State Attorney General Alan Wilson is expressing his support for recent Congressional hearings that are addressing youth social media use.

Wilson said Wednesday that he joined 52 other attorneys general expressing strong support for the hearings that are addressing platforms like Facebook and their effect on children.

The hearings come amid claims that Facebook’s algorithms could be inflicting harm on children in the form of increased mental distress, bullying and suicide, according to Wilson.

“These allegations suggest that these companies understand that they need to increase the amount of time that kids stay on their platforms in order to make more money,” Wilson said. “Facebook should know better.”

The bipartisan coalition of attorneys general wrote a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg urging the company to abandon their attempts to launch a 13-and-under version of Instagram. The letter was ignored, according to Wilson.

“More engagement by the user equals more data to leverage for advertising, which equals greater profit,” said Wilson. “This prompts social media companies to design their algorithms and other features to psychologically manipulate young users into a state of addiction to their cell phone screens.”

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