Target Acquired: Your Teens

During my high school years, Marlboro Reds, Camels, and Luck Strikes were my cigarettes of choice. I enjoyed the long drags, the clouds of smoke that lingered above my head, and especially the coolness factor that I evidently bought into at a very young age. Since that time, cigarette use has shrunk fourfold from 1991 to 2021. Good news, right? Yes it certainly is. But, for today's youth, the pervasive health hazards aren't coming from cigarettes... It's coming from social media.

Social Media, Today's Cigarette

Social media apps like YouTube, SnapChat, TikTok, and many others are undeniably the most pervasive technology in the lives of our school age children. With nearly all adolescents, 13-17 years old having access to some form of technology that provides access to the internet and social media, the streets of social media addiction have been well paved with drug-like effects leading to serious health hazards.

A staggering 10 million teens are online on a social media site at any given time during the day or night. This is 'gold' for companies like Meta (Facebook) or Google that use clicks and views as engagement that result in ad revenue in the billions of dollars.

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has expressed serious concerns and the threat social media poses to children. In fact, he's requested urgent action and demanded Congress place a label on all social media apps similar to those on cigarettes and alcohol.

Ultimately, children's access to social media is the responsibility of the parents or guardians. However, just as I was still able to access cigarettes during my young "hooligan days" in high school, this effort to curb social media use will need all the resources of the entire village.

"We're in the middle of a youth mental health crisis, and I'm concerned that social media is contributing to the harm that kids are experiencing," Murthy told CNN in May 2023.

"It is time to require a surgeon general's warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents," Murthy said. "A surgeon general's warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe."

The Los Angeles Unified School District is taking lead in enacting policy to mitigate these risks and help school children to better focus on school work. This policy to ban cellphones was enacted in 2011, but never enforced, until now.

Beginning in the 2025 school year, LAUSD's Superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, and its Board have voted in favor of a cellphone ban during school hours.

What are your thoughts on this ban? Is it a school board's responsibility to enact such policies? What about in times of emergency when you need to contact your child during school hours? Share your thoughts.

Los Angeles Unified School District #cellphone #LAUSD Alberto Carvalho Meta Facebook Google TikTok ByteDance Snap Inc. Howard Blume Sonali Kohli Kyle Stokes Joy Resmovits Adolfo Guzman-Lopez Tanya Ortiz Franklin Nick Melvoin Scott Schmerelson Jackie Goldberg for School Board George McKenna, III