Bruce Reed
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The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos · AI Is the New Social Media. Can We Protect Kids This Time?
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Should Parents Turn Off an AI Chatbot's Memory?
Bruce Reed says parents should be able to turn off memory so that every time a kid went on an AI platform, it was starting from scratch. Turning memory off would even the score quite a bit for the kid's experience.
Grown-ups have to step up and pass laws to make AI safer and make social media safer or at least less present. Work is already underway to pass limits on AI companions and to strengthen parental control, so parents have more agency to figure out what the AI experience is like for their kids. Eventually, independent safety audits are needed to make sure the programs are safe before they go on the market. People working in the classroom should teach digital literacy. Kids may be mo
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Should Teens Use AI Companion Chatbots?
Bruce Reed says Common Sense Media put out a report declaring AI companion chatbots an unacceptable risk for anyone under 18. They are the worst friend a teenager could have because they are designed to tell you what you want to hear, and that can lead a teen down very dark rabbit holes.
Kids are the early adopters. Three-quarters of teens have used AI companion chatbots. Half use them regularly. A third say they would just as soon have a conversation with an AI companion as with a human. The companions give bad advice. They can get a teen into a lot of trouble, including explicit content.
The most tragic part is how good the companions are at reading needs. It is very easy to become emoti
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Why Do Kids Stay on Social Media If It Feels Worse?
Laurie Santos says kids stay on social media even when the products make them feel worse, because everybody else is using them. She calls the platforms product traps. Ask the average kid how much they would pay to be on social media and they do not want to pay. Ask how much they would have to be paid to get off and they say a lot, because everyone else is on there. Ask how much they would pay for a world with no social media at all and they are willing to pay a lot.
Bruce Reed says the companies are not acknowledging the problem as much as they should. They have known for a long time that the products can be addictive. Talking about it as an addiction makes it seem like the kids' fault, whe
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Does More Than Three Hours of Social Media Double Anxiety?
Bruce Reed says spending more than three hours a day on social media doubles the prospects of anxiety or depression. Vivek Murthy pointed that out in a Surgeon General report on the mental health impacts of social media. Kids already spend about four and a half hours a day on a phone on average, so pretty much every kid is in the group spending more than three hours.
A survey of teens found that kids spent about 43 minutes a day on phones in school, although plenty of kids spent six hours. Kids pick up a phone 100 times a day on average and get over 200 notifications over the course of the day. Two thirds said they are often short on sleep because they spend so much time on the phone. He th
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How Much Screen Time Do Kids Under Eight Get?
Bruce Reed says screen time for the youngest kids runs from about an hour a day under age two to two hours a day at ages three and four, then three and a half hours for kids between five and eight. Across ages zero to eight, time on digital devices averages two and a half hours a day.
A Common Sense census of kids zero to eight found that 40% of American two-year-olds have a tablet, and the share reaches 60% by age four. One out of four eight-year-olds has a cell phone. Most of the time still goes to TV and videos. Video games are the big change, up about 65% over the past five years.
The hours replace reading a book, making up games, or playing in the dirt. Parents often welcome the break