Just do it: It’s not that hard to make social media safer for kids.

At a recent event with teachers and doctors from across the country, a pediatric psychiatrist told me that kids have started showing up for kindergarten without the ability to throw a ball or hold a pencil. Their hands lack those abilities, in part, because they spend so much time in front of screens. It seems kids are losing the ability to participate in childhood.

Last year, I disclosed  to the federal government more than 20,000 pages of internal documents from my former employer, Facebook (now Meta). Probably the most shocking disclosure was the extent to which Facebook knew its products, Instagram in particular, were harming our children and chose to do nothing about it

The products children spend so much time with from the youngest of ages are not safe — by design. And it is at the product-design level, rather than tacked-on screen-time features, that products for our children can be made meaningfully safer.

Instagram’s own studies show that the platform worsens body images for 1 in 3 teen girls. More than 13% of teen girls say the app contributes to their suicidal or self-harm thoughts.

Read more here.