Newsletter Archives

• You can stop the avalanche of teen suicides due to social media

  Posted on March 3, 2025 at 02:45 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 22.09 • 2025-03-03

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The world is suffering from an explosion of teenage suicides and self-harm that are directly caused by the depression and suicidal impulses that young people develop through social-media use, according to medical experts.

  I called attention to these ghastly statistics in my July 8, 2024, column. Suicide rates among children as young at 10 have doubled or tripled since smartphones became glued to teenagers’ hands and social media such as Instagram became kids’ primary method of relating to the world.

  Finally, a respected psychologist — a professor of leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business — has published a blueprint to end the bloodshed and bring children back into a healthy relationship with their electronic devices and each other.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.09.0, 2025-03-03).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender Age Restrictions, Age Verification, Child Security, Depression, Newsletters, Self-harm, Smartphones, Social Media, Suicide, Teen Depression

• The best stories of 2024 — updated!

  Posted on December 30, 2024 at 02:45 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.53 • 2024-12-30

  Look for our BONUS issue on January 6, 2025!

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The year 2024 is now in the books. I’m pleased to report some positive moves this year that may make the tech industry’s products better for us all.

  I’ll give you some important updates today on (1) keeping artificial-intelligence services from creating malicious images, (2) minimizing social-media websites’ negative effects on users’ mental health, and (3) discovering how “answer engines” are improving on the tiresome linkfests of old-guard search giants.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.53.0, 2024-12-30).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Public Defender AI, ChatGPT, DALL-E, Deepfakes, Generative AI, Google Gemini, Newsletters, OpenAI, Perplexity, Social Media

• Social-media apps are killing our kids. Do adults care?

  Posted on July 8, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Rates of suicide and self-harm among teens and preteens in the US and other countries have doubled, tripled, and even quintupled in the past dozen years. Now we may finally know why.

  An explosive front-page article in The Wall Street Journal on June 21, 2024, revealed that Instagram — with more than 2 billion monthly active users — feeds disturbing videos to viewers who register as minors. The website’s Reels stream, the newspaper said, feeds to teenagers three times as many sex videos as it sends to adults over the age of 30, 1.7 times as much violence, and 4.1 times as much bullying.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.28.0, 2024-07-08).

  Public Defender Bullying, Instagram, Mental Health, Newsletters, Self-harm, Social Media, Suicide

• Space flight is impossible

  Posted on September 26, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Max Stul Oppenheimer • Comment in the Forums

  LEGAL BRIEF

  

  By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

  I read it in the New York Times.

  Two cases currently making their way through the federal court system may determine what you will or will not be able to post and see on the Internet.

  The states of Missouri and Louisiana have sued President Biden, his former press secretary Psaki, Surgeon General Murthy, HHS Secretary Becerra, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (and Chief Medical Advisor to the President) Fauci, Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Easterly, and Director Jankowicz of the so-called “Disinformation Governance Board” of the Department of Homeland Security.

  The suit is, as would be expected, highly political. Putting aside the specific allegations of the case, it does raise important issues for the control of social media.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.39.0, 2022-09-26).

  Legal Brief Communications Decency Act, Freedom of speech, Legal Brief, Newsletters, Section 230, Social Media, Truth