SCMP Letters｜Let’s protect Hong Kong’s children from social media ourselves
Meta Platforms has agreed to pay up to US$18 billion to settle the social media harm case brought by US state attorneys general, and to implement default protections for teens, including a two-hour daily limit. A company does not agree to a sum like that over a misunderstanding.
In Hong Kong, the company has started helping parents protect teenagers online. While it deserves credit for both moves, they don’t undo what has already happened. Litigation was needed to change a handful of settings and there has been no settlement outside the United States. The harm of the past decade was not reversed last month, and our students are still carrying it.
Dr Lam Ching-choi, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Mental Health, has said that prevention is always better than cure, and that the first tier of a proposed three-tier mental health support model must be broad.
The Education Bureau’s digital education blueprint requires schools to write digital education into school development plans. The blueprint appears to focus more on artificial intelligence than social media, though social media platforms shape students’ lives just as much. Schools need not wait for a policy covering social media.
In my view, the work of preventing harm to children’s mental health starts with us adults using our own phones less frequently in front of them. Next come clear boundaries, set by schools rather than left to individual teachers, between when these tools help students learn and when they stand in the way.
In the 88 primary schools we work with, we have found that what protects children is relationships. A child who has one adult at school who knows them, and classmates they can be honest with, needs no screen to feel worthy.
The term began on September 1. Use these first weeks to tell students they are valued and loved. A child who is understood at school is less likely to be looking for a chatbot at midnight.
Raymond Yang Sze-ngai, co-founder and executive director, Just Feel
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