Social Media Does Not Cause Harm to Children, Meta VP Claims

Meta Vice President and Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis says she does not believe social media has “done harm to our children.”

At a recent social media inquiry, Nationals MP Andrew Wallace raised the issue with Ms. Davis, who on several occasions, rejected claims that digital platforms such as Facebook and Instagram hurt young individuals.

Some of the harms discussed by MPs included mental health problems, online bullying, and fostering improper perceptions of what is a healthy body.

Mr. Wallace asked whether Ms. Davis would stand by her previous statements.

In response, the Meta vice president once again said she did not think that social media had caused harm.

“I don’t think that social media has done harm to our children,” the VP said.

“I think that social media has provided tremendous benefits,” she said, noting that teenagers have used social to build community, stay connected to friends and pursue their interests.

“I think that issues of teen mental health are complex and multifactorial.

“I think that it is our responsibility as a company to ensure that teens can be able to take advantage of those benefits of social media in a safe and positive environment.”

Meta Claims It Is Providing Safe, Positive Experiences

At the same time, Ms. Davis said Meta was committed to providing a safe and positive experience for children.

Using the example of teenagers struggling with an eating disorder, she said her company had implemented a number of measures to ensure that it was not exacerbating teenagers’ problem.

“For example, we have a policy against diet ads for teens. We do not allow the promotion of eating disorder content on our platform. We’ve built classifiers to remove it,” Ms. Davis said.

“If a teen searches for that type of content on our platform, we actually provide resources. We pop up resources to redirect them.

“We make efforts to try to support people who may be having those types of issues and ensure that we are not contributing to those issues that that individual may be dealing with.”

However, Mr. Wallace was not satisfied with Ms. Davis’s answer.

“I’ve got to say, dealing with Meta is like dealing with big tobacco in the 1960s and the 1970s. You can’t be taken seriously,” he said.

Despite Ms. Davis’s claims, a 2023 study by The University of Sydney indicated that adolescents were subject to a wide range of negative experiences.

Specifically, 54 percent of the respondents said they felt they were wasting time when using social media, while 37 percent thought they overused social media apps.

In addition, 27 percent suffered from sleep deprivation and 17 percent experienced online bullying.

Meta Remains Ambiguous About Age Verification

Mr. Wallace also questioned Ms. Davis about whether Meta would support raising the age of access to social media to 16.

Mr. Wallace’s question came as both the Labor government and the Opposition had expressed the intention to lift the minimum age for social media usage in Australia due to rising concerns about its negative impact.

At present, many digital platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok require users to be at least 13 years old to create an account, a policy that it is difficult to enforce.

In response, Ms. Davis did not explain Meta’s stance on the issue.

“I think trying to determine the exact age at which a teen is ready for these kinds of services can be very dependent on the child,” she said.

“We’ve built our services to try to create experiences that enable people for 13 and above. We do support having parental approval for those under the age of 16.”

She also noted that having parents involved in the approval process would allow them to make better decisions for their children.

Furthermore, Ms. Davis said Meta was pushing for an age verification solution at the operating system and app store levels to prevent underage children from circumventing age requirements by using other social media apps that regulators and parents were unaware of.