The statistics were startling, and the stories were stark. A group of parents and community members gathered in Lake Lenore School’s gym on Monday night, October 28, to listen to Laura Lawrence, a mom, a former educator, and now a champion of change when it comes to kids and families’ relationships with digital devices. Lawrence made no bones about it – kids are in harm's way from the devices they spend so much time with.
Lawrence made it clear that many of the common platforms and apps kids interact with, apps like Tik Tok, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube are rife with dangers from either predators or simply the interface rewiring kids’ cognitive and behavioural programming.
Lawrence introduced her talk with a short by impactful video by the Canadian Child Protection Agency that saw parents mourning over lost children who had done themselves harm or taken their own lives due to the cyber harms that had befallen them.
Lawrence says she became acutely aware of the problem when her own child fell victim to a cyber harm. It’s heightened her awareness, caused her to change her own behaviour, and certainly to question the motives of billionaire tech developers who are complicit in the harm befalling children in the pursuit of money.
“Kids are dying as the result of online harms, and at all ages,” Lawrence solemnly shared. “That’s the nightmare in all of this. But what’s really happening is the impact on the mental health of kids – the demise of the ability for kids literally be face to face, have interactions, build relationships.”
The premise is that interpretation of the world and interpersonal connection through a screen is eroding the normal social development and communication capabilities of kids. The erosion of attention spans has clearly become evident in some children’s ability to undertake school studies. It’s sadly created multitudes in a generation that find it hard to muster the focus to be successful at job tasks.
The prevalence of predators, confirmed by communication and social science experts, ICE officers and digital providers themselves, caught the breath of parents in attendance. At any time on digital devices, 500,000 predators are trying to gain access to kids' information, images, and to the kids' communication through those commonly used platforms.
Indeed, Lawrence cited a list of court cases and legal claims as to the harm that the developers of X (Twitter), Facebook, Snapchat, Apple and others face for allowing the exchange of money for illicit images and communications.
Statistically, the impact of the inherent harm has been made clear with the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health reporting that depression in boys has increased 145 percent in girls since 2010 and 161 percent in boys, a time span that correlates with the introduction of handheld digital devices.
A large number of young people are hooked into their devices for 4 to 6 hours a day, sometimes more, and they know it. Lawrence presented results of a survey of 356 Saskatchewan youth via her Youth Matter Canada initiative, and 90 percent of them acknowledged that digital spaces were harmful to youth. Seventy-three percent said they were on their phones more than 4 hours a day, and 86 per cent said they keep their phones in their bedrooms at night. That’s a practice Lawrence says parents should start putting a stop to.
Lawrence says the starting point is awareness, and it’s up to parents and caregivers to perform their due diligence on the apps their kids are using, the content of their communications, and the potential for harm brought by devices and those who are communicating with kids through them.
“We need to know what’s going on in these digital spaces. We need to know what’s happening in these apps, the history behind some of these tech platforms and companies. In educating ourselves, I’m listening to podcasts, I’m reading books, I’m talking to parents and other kids.”
One of those books that is a highly recommended cornerstone in tackling the issue is The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. The social psychologist examines the epidemic of adolescent mental health decline and lays it squarely at the feet of digital connectivity.
She says those conversations are prefaced in ways such as ‘what are you hearing’ or ‘is this happening and what are you seeing?’ Questions like those are keys to open communications and beginning to take action.
“One of the things I like to do is if I read an article or listen to a podcast, then I’ll say to my teen, ‘Hey, I just heard something about Snapchat – is this happening? Is this what your friends are seeing?’ Just really open-ended questions to see where the conversation can go without coming at it in an accusatory nature.”
You can connect with Laura at lauralawrence.ca and at Youth Matter Canada.
The evening event was presented thanks to a donation by Scout and Magpie, the Lake Lenore based thrift store that provides donations for community causes.
Lawrence is hoping to make her way back to Humboldt in the near future. Parents of kids of any age would be well advised to take in her public session.