One Easy Change Social Media Companies Can Make to Fight the Child Mental Health Crisis

The government survey of almost 8,000 high-school students, which was conducted in the first six months of 2021, found a great deal of variation in mental health among different groups. More than one in four girls reported that they had seriously contemplated attempting suicide during the pandemic, which was twice the rate of boys.

But the big picture is the same across all categories: Almost every measure of mental health is getting worse, for every teenage demographic, and it’s happening all across the country. Since 2009, sadness and hopelessness have increased for every race; for straight teens and gay teens; for teens who say they’ve never had sex and for those who say they’ve had sex with males and/or females; for students in each year of high school; and for teens in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram are the most popular social media apps that kids are using. They account for a huge percentage of the user base for all three. Part of the appeal is the endless scrolling on TikTok and Instagram, where algorithms use your user history to generate what content they think you want to see next. It's actually very easy to train social media algorithms to your tastes, and kids are constantly getting fed what they want to see.

But another aspect of this, and I think the unhealthier aspect, is the social media following. They see content creators with massive follower counts, and they start imitating what those content creators do, even if it includes sexualized or dangerous content. Given that age verification is becoming more and more important when using these apps, I think there's a relatively easy solution to mitigate a lot of this clout chasing on social media.

Meta, Snap, ByteDance, and other social media companies can do the right thing and put an automatic follower count cap on underage accounts. Once you hit 18 years old, then your cap can increase. But, until then, you're limited to just a few hundred. Along with this, the social media algorithms should be barred from suggesting to others these underage accounts for following, regardless of whether the child puts their age on their profile or not.

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has concluded that "we cannot conclude social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents."

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San Diego MTS Chief Information Officer Files Lawsuit for Retaliation Over Nathan Fletcher Allegations

After months out of the public eye following his disgraceful exit from politics, Nathan Fletcher, former San Diego Board of Supervisors, Chair for Metropolitan Transit System Board, and husband to Cal Labor's Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, is back in the news, and not in a good way.

MTS' Chief Information Officer Emily Outlaw filed a tort claim, which is the precursor to a lawsuit, stating that she was retaliated against for refusing to lie about Nathan Fletcher's alleged sexual harassment of former MTS staffer Grecia Figueroa, and because Outlaw refused to hack into Grecia Figueroa's private messaging account. On March 19, Outlaw moved from the claim to a full lawsuit against MTS, specifically naming Fletcher and Figueroa.

The Chief Information Officer for the Metropolitan Transit System says she was retaliated against for refusing to hide facts and hack into accounts during the agency's investigation into Nathan Fletcher's sexual assault and harassment allegations. In a March 19 non-conformed lawsuit, Emily Outlaw says she was not given a raise and was placed on administrative leave after she discovered that a top MTS executive was aware of the sexual harassment allegations against then-chair Nathan Fletcher long before the agency said it was.

MTS at first denied that it attempted to cover up Figueroa's sexual harassment allegations. According to an April 6 press release from MTS, as well as in statements to CBS 8 that same day, the agency was not aware of Figueroa's allegations until March 29, the day after Figueroa filed her lawsuit, Outlaw soon discovered the agency knew nearly two months before that.

It was after Outlaw refused to comply with Cooney's demands that the lawsuit alleges her working relationship with Cooney deteriorated, her performance reviews were negatively impacted, and she did not receive a customary cost of living raise. In December of 2023, Outlaw was placed on administrative leave.

MTS commissioned an investigation of the Grecia Figueroa allegations and issued a 90-page report at the end of January, essentially absolving Nathan Fletcher of any wrongdoing or involvement in the termination of Figueroa.

The he said/she said nature of the allegations have been complicated by allegations in the lawsuit that Fletcher's wife, Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, allegedly threatened retaliation against Figueroa if she did not drop the suit. The trial date for the Figueroa-Fletcher lawsuit is scheduled for February 2025.

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