We Must Make Social Media Safe For Teens 

I am grateful to Jeff Horwitz of The Wall Street Journal for his in-depth account of my deeply frustrating experiences attempting to inform Facebook's leaders about the seriousness of the harms experienced by teenagers as well as practical steps they could take to remediate them. 

You can watch my testimony to the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, November 7.

I am sharing extensive recommendations for concrete steps that can be taken by social media companies to empower and protect people, especially teenagers. 

You can read the documents below.

In the following documents I explain what I have learned from working on these issues, in the hope of prompting an urgent conversation about pragmatic steps that can be taken now.  The first one gives a comprehensive overview:

We must make social media safe for teens

I've also written a number of in-depth essays, linked below, in the hope of supporting lawmakers, regulators, journalists, and people who work in Integrity and Trust and Safety for social media companies.

Good questions for the press and others to ask social media companies.

Lessons learned while building bullying tools for teens.

Teenagers and unwanted sexual advances on social media.

Why social media’s current approach to policy and enforcement doesn’t work.

Recommendations for Regulators

Harmful content must be understood from the perspective of the person who is affected.

Some examples and notes for Integrity and Trust and Safety workers.

Dear Reader, 

My goal is to be accurate and clear in the service of people who are dedicated to protecting and caring for others online. Please note that I will only respond to messages left using this form.  Since my commitment to this work is resolutely pro bono, I will not respond to  any messages here that are related to private litigation or for-profit promotion (i.e. books, exclusives, etc.). The documents linked in this site (above) provide more information and details.  Please be respectful when you leave comments and offer feedback.

Before you write a comment or fill out the form, please keep these few things in mind:

• Members of the Press: For press inquiries, please use the contact form. 

• Regulators and lawmakers:  I’m most interested in conversations with those who have the regulatory ability to compel the kind of transparency and processes that will help create a safer environment for teenagers online.
  
  

• Friends at Meta: I am happy to discuss my observations and recommendations with representatives  of Meta, but if anyone from the communications or policy teams would like to talk, I will ask that we please do it in an open and transparent setting.
  
  

• Academics: I believe only good comes from transparency, and from academic studies that improve understanding of the effects of social media on how we relate to each other. Please reach out if you are researching these issues and would like to have a discussion.
  
  

• Integrity and trust professionals:  If you would like to talk in confidence about ways to implement these ideas, or to discuss related topics or ideas, I would like to support you. I am, however, not available for contract work. Everything I have included in these documents is in the public domain.
  
  

• People in the tech industry considering whistleblowing: I’ve come to believe that there is no reason for confidentiality concerning aggregate, non-identifiable data about the types of harms people experience online and our strategies to reduce those harms. Making such information available will only help create a more safe environment for users, so long as there's no possibility of re-identifying individual users.
  
  

  • 1. • • If you are an integrity or trust and safety professional, and believe there are things you yourself should let the public know about, you can reach out to Jeff Horwitz at The Wall Street Journal. In my experience with him, he has shown integrity and care, and does well-balanced reporting. 

         • There are many organizations dedicated to supporting technology whistleblowers.
           
           

• People working in social media that serves teens: If you are willing and able to dedicate product managers and engineers to work on tools to help teens, you can also contact Marc Brackett and Robin Stern from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.  Both are experts at working with teenagers and have experience with online safety tools. I worked with them for years and found them to be deeply knowledgeable and helpful. 

I value your feedback and input, so if, as you review the article and referenced essays, you want to flag other data, rationales, perspectives, or think additional relevant information should be included, please send a message using the form below. 

Thank you,

Arturo