Officials say social media is hurting teens. Scientists say it’s complicated.

Happy Wednesday! I still can’t get over this story on the price of the modern car. Send news and vehicular tips to: [email protected].

? Breaking this morning: Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, will testify to Congress for the first time next week. More on that here.

Below: Tucker Carlson is relaunching his show on Twitter, and Canada rebukes Meta’s threat to pull news content. First:

Officials say social media is hurting teens. Scientists say it’s complicated.

© Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Katie Boyd Britt (R-Ala.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) recently unveiled legislation to set an age limit for social media. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

As lawmakers around the country consider expanding protections for children online, many officials have accused platforms of causing harm to younger users. 

They have faulted companies for “driving” a teen mental health epidemic. They have likened platforms to “digital fentanyl” and the tech industry to “Big Tobacco.” And some have called for sweeping policies to ban or restrict access to social media for kids and teens altogether. 

But a new report by the American Psychological Association released Tuesday paints a more complex picture of the relationship between teens and platforms, with top researchers finding that social media use “is not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people” and calling for more research into the matter.

The findings suggest that while scrutiny over social media’s impact on kids’ health is soaring, studies showing direct harm are still somewhat rare — and public research on the topic is racing to catch up. 

The report found that the effect of social media on adolescents is usually “dependent” on individual factors, including what teens can do and see online, how they grew up and what their own “strengths and vulnerabilities” are.

In some instances, researchers wrote, “youths’ psychological development may benefit” from social interaction online, especially for “those experiencing mental health crises, or members of marginalized groups.”

The report recommended adults monitor younger users but noted actions “should be balanced” with privacy needs. It suggested platforms should be “tailored” in “age-appropriate” ways, including changes to how companies ask for consent to collect personal data, set time limits for daily usage and recommend content to users. And it called for training teens on healthy use.

Evan Greer, director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, said the report shows that “actual research is far less conclusive and far more nuanced than lawmakers’ rhetoric.”

But just because the science is still developing doesn’t mean companies and policymakers should wait to act, APA chief science officer Mitch Prinstein said.

“In the policy world, we can do things to protect folks when there’s a preponderance of evidence,” said Prinstein, whose group last year endorsed one key children’s online safety bill. 

Tech companies and policymakers have taken steps or offered proposals that mirror some of the report’s recommendations.

In the face of growing pressure, platforms including Instagram, TikTok and YouTube have rolled out new features to give parents more control over their kids’ activity, limit how much time they spend online and make tighter privacy settings a default.

In Washington, lawmakers have introduced a flurry of children’s online safety bills, including to make it a legal duty for platforms to prevent certain harms to kids and to require platforms to build safety features into their design. State policymakers have proposed a series of similar bills to create a so-called “age-appropriate design code” for how companies build their products.

Lawmakers at both the state and federal level have also proposed stricter limits on social media access, with Utah and Arkansas banning social media for children and requiring parental consent for teens, and Senate lawmakers introducing a measure with similar restrictions.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), one of the lawmakers leading a bill to set an age limit for kids on social media, said the “new report backs up what we already know: social media and the personalized algorithms that feed addictive harmful content are no match for kids.”

Prinstein said the evidence doesn’t support the age-limit efforts. 

“An all-or-nothing approach is not reflecting what we know, scientifically, is best for kids. … The age limit has a high likelihood of backfiring,” he said.

The report argued that “age-appropriate use of social media should be based on each adolescent’s level of maturity,” and noted that “adolescents mature at different rates.”

And Prinstein said the evidence suggests social media is one of “many” factors contributing to a teen mental health crisis, not a “predominant or leading cause.”

The researchers noted their report had its own limitations.

The group said that while results showing a “causal” link between social media and harms to teens are “rare,” it could in part be because the data needed to draw those conclusions “may be available within technology companies,” but not to outside researchers. 

They also said that due to a lack of research, the “long-term” impact of social media use on adolescents remains “largely unknown.” To that end, they called for a “substantial investment in research funding.”

Lawmakers last year secured $15 million in funding for research into how social media impacts children as part of the year-end omnibus package.

But Prinstein said the current funding levels are just a “drop in the bucket.”

“We need a $100 million mental health moonshot investment in child mental health and a substantial portion of that could be dedicated to understanding social media,” he said.

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CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI to testify to Congress for first time

© Jovelle Tamayo for The Washington Post/for The Washington Post
Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT’s parent company OpenAI, speaks to journalists during Microsoft’s announcement of a new, AI-powered Bing search earlier this month.

Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, will testify to Congress for the first time next week, as scrutiny of tools driven by artificial intelligence soars in Washington, your host reports in a story out this morning.

Altman, who will appear before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday morning, is set to discuss oversight of the technology and potential rules for keeping it in check. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), whose subcommittee is hosting the hearing, said the session will begin the panel’s “work in overseeing and illuminating AI’s advanced algorithms and powerful technology.”

The session is the latest sign that lawmakers and federal officials are weighing how to respond to the surging popularity of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, which pull information from massive data sets to generate words, images and sounds, including conversational responses to users’ queries.

Christina Montgomery, vice president and chief privacy and trust officer at tech giant IBM, and Gary Marcus, a professor emeritus at New York University, are also slated to testify before the Senate Judiciary panel. Altman is expected to appear in-person and speak alongside the other witnesses, the panel said.

Tucker Carlson relaunching former Fox News show on Twitter

© Richard Drew/AP
Tucker Carlson in the Fox News studio in 2017. (Richard Drew/AP)

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson intends to relaunch his prime-time show on Twitter, our colleagues Jeremy Barr, Faiz Siddiqui and Sarah Ellison report.

Carlson posted a video to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon announcing a “new version” of the show coming to the platform.

“It was not immediately clear how Carlson decided to bring his content to Twitter. But a video Carlson posted to the platform in late April, days after his firing, amassed more than 80 million views, according to Twitter’s public view counts, which impressed Carlson and people in his orbit,” they write.

Twitter owner Elon Musk on Tuesday evening tweeted that he and Carlson “have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever” and added that “Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators.”

Twitter under Musk has been crafting ways to further monetize the platform such as paid verification and charging for API access.

Canadian prime minister opposes Meta argument that news carries no economic value

© Adrian Wyld/AP
Meta this week said it would stop delivering news content on Instagram and Facebook in Canada if the nation passes a bill called the Online News Act. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press/AP)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau disputed a Meta official’s claim that news carries no economic value as the social media giant threatens to pull news content from its platforms in Canada over a disputed media fee bill, Ismail Shakil reports for Reuters.

Meta this week said it would stop delivering news content on Instagram and Facebook in Canada if the nation passes the Online News Act, a bill that would require social media companies to pay publishers when they feature their work. Google has also threatened to pull news in the country if it passes, according to the report.

“If we are being asked to compensate these publishers for material that has no economic value to us, that’s where the problem is,” Meta’s Canada public policy head Rachel Curran told a parliamentary committee yesterday. 

Trudeau said the claim “is not just flawed, it’s dangerous to our democracy, to our economy.”

A California lawmaker in March introduced similar legislation that would require social media platforms to pay a “journalism usage fee” when they place ads next to news content, The Technology 202 previously reported. It mirrors heavily contested federal legislation that would allow news outlets to bargain distribution terms with social media. Meta in December signaled it would take all news content off its U.S. platforms if that federal bill passed.  

Rant and rave

Twitter reacts to news that Wendy’s is partnering with Google to automate drive-through service with an AI chatbot. Greg Bensinger from Reuters:

Independent immigration reporter Felipe De La Hoz:

The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern:

Agency scanner

In global rush to regulate AI, Europe set to be trailblazer (The Associated Press)

Inside the industry

Reid Hoffman on the future of artificial intelligence (Washington Post Live)

After years of explosive growth, 5G’s future is mired in politics (The Hill)

Spotify ejects thousands of AI-made songs in purge of fake streams (Financial Times)

Privacy monitor

Google promised to delete sensitive data. It logged my abortion clinic visit. (Geoffrey A. Fowler)

Workforce report

LinkedIn lays off 716 employees, kills China jobs app (CNBC)

Trending

Sam Bankman-Fried, in first detailed defense, seeks to dismiss charges (New York Times)

China announces first known ChatGPT detention over fake train crash news (South China Morning Post)

Daybook

• The House Agriculture Committee holds a hearing titled “The Future of Digital Assets: Measuring the Regulatory Gaps in the Digital Asset Markets” at 9:30 a.m.
• NIST Director Laurie Locascio testifies to the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee about the agency’s fiscal year 2024 budget at 10 a.m.
• The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee also convenes a hearing on the Energy Department’s implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act and other legislation at 2 p.m.
• The Senate Commerce Committee considers a bill on increasing foreign direct investment in semiconductor-related manufacturing and production at 10 a.m.
• The House Energy and Commerce Committee holds a hearing titled “Closing the Digital Divide: Overseeing Federal Funds for Broadband Deployment” at 10:30 a.m.
• The House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing on federal responses to recent bank failures at 2 p.m.
• The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation holds a webinar titled “Assessing the State of Transatlantic Tech-Trade Relations” at 10 a.m.

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