Black Parents Have Questions About Meta’s $18 Billion Settlement. A Columbia Expert Has Answers

Meta just agreed to an $18 billion settlement over allegations that its platforms harmed children and teens, but parents and advocates still have plenty of questions about whether it’s enough.

The sweeping agreement includes new restrictions aimed at protecting young users from some of the platform’s most concerning features and practices, according to NPR. But for Black parents and families, the conversation around social media and young people is often more complicated. How do we protect kids without ignoring the unique pressures they already face online and offline?

The Root spoke exclusively with Dr. Riana Elyse Anderson, an associate professor at Columbia University and clinical psychologist who studies racism, youth mental health and the environments shaping Black children, about what the settlement means — and what needs to happen next.

The Root: The settlement is one of the largest in history. What does that say about how willing state officials are to intervene?

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Dr. Anderson: It’s so historic because it’s being dispersed across so many states, and yet there’s still not a national understanding of what we need to be doing in schools or at home. It’s certainly a step towards understanding what needs to be done for youth mental health. It’s not as far as what we’ve seen other countries do, so we’re making steps, but not quite the sweeping understanding of what we, as a nation, can do to protect our children.

The Root: What still needs to be done?

Anderson: Our studies aren’t quite fully caught up to the answers to this question. There are some things we know that are discrepant between races. For example, we also know that there are differences between years when social media has been most available for kiddos and when it wasn’t. We know that there are things that we can create some associations with — some correlations with — but we still can’t fully say causally that social media is the only or even the primary cause of some of these concerns for young people.

We just need a lot more money for large-scale studies to truly understand what needs to be done. I certainly think there needs to be a relationship between the government and researchers, and that’s been really damaged in the past two years. To do that, we need funding, we need trust, and we need the backing of the government to do these long-standing and large-scale studies for young people.

The Root: What advice do you have to help parents of teenagers trying to navigate the changing scope of social media and technology?

Anderson: You can create a plan beforehand: ‘Tell me some of the things that you are excited to do today. Whether it’s shows or on your platforms, what types of accounts are you excited to check out? What types of shows on YouTube?’

It can be really helpful to be planful beforehand and to discuss that plan with your family. And then have that conversation too: ‘What were some of the maybe three highlights that you saw online today? What did it teach you?’ Really dig in and investigate because that can help young people to be more intentional, more mindful around the content that they’re watching rather than these passive scrollers who are mindlessly engaging in something that they don’t know is impacting their mental health and their well-being the way that it is.

The Root: What role does society play? And how can we be better examples for our youth?

Anderson: Social forces are tough if everybody in your classroom is on a platform and if everybody’s kind of engaging in, what I would call this fourth space, this big cloud around them of content that’s just constantly whirling. It’s really hard to break that as a kiddo. So from a social perspective, it’s really tough to break away from what everybody is doing. And again, AI is the next thing that we’re going to have to contend with.

We need to be very mindful that the next wave of what is coming for young people is this instant answer, this space that is going to really impact thinking, relationships [and] competence. It’s coming, if it’s not already here. Step one as a society is: let’s also proactively try to attend to AI as the next wave that’s going to impact our young people.

The Root: How can the youth empower themselves to better protect their mental health and their privacy online?

Anderson: The one thing that I hope that everyone recognizes, particularly Black youth, about these social platforms is that they are corporations. And at the end of the day, their goal is to make money. It is to keep your eyes and your pockets open. … I know kiddos don’t necessarily need to run around thinking about capitalism or anything of that sort, but the reality is that people get hurt constantly because companies are trying to make more money. It’s not their goal for young people to be well.

So if young people want to be well, I would really want them to be the ones to answer this question for us, ‘What does a happy, healthy society look like for you?’ And if it does not include nine or 10 hours of looking down with your spine hunched and your wrist starting to get tendonitis and if that’s not you feeling all sorts of depressed and lonely and low self-esteem — if that’s not what you want your life to look like, let’s build one that looks the way you want it.

I really want young people to be the authors and the voice of their future. And what a great way to start fresh by saying, ‘Listen, this is a device or a platform that is not built for your wellness and mind. So tell me what your best life looks like. What does your best self look like?’ Let’s start with that and build up.