Welcome to The Technology 202. A special thanks to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) for taking the time to speak with me for today’s newsletter while dealing with the tragic bridge collapse in his home state. Today:
Federal appropriators this year re-upped $15 million in funding for a program directing the National Institutes of Health and Department of Health and Human Services to lead studies examining technology’s impact on children’s development and mental health. With Congress initially allocating $15 million last year, total investment is now up to $30 million.
The initiative, first proposed by Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), is one of the federal government’s most significant attempts yet to map out how much digital platforms are contributing to issues like depression, anxiety and drug abuse among youth.
The funding will provide “a critical window into Big Tech’s impact on the nation’s young people,” including topics like how exposure to racist posts may harm minority youths and how screen time could affect sleep, Markey said in an interview Wednesday.
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” he said.
The 2023 appropriations helped NIH fund 26 grants looking into how tech impacts children, totaling $15.1 million, according to a fact sheet shared by Markey’s office.
That included new research into “the effects of screen light exposure and stimulating media content on sleep regulation,” the impact on “race-related stereotypic content” on racial minorities and whether “social media experiences promote or diminish adolescents’ mental well-being.”
Next week, the agency is planning a meeting “to discuss the current state of and future directions for research on the positive and negative effects” of tech and digital media, which could serve as a launching point for additional projects under the program.
“It’s a tiny sum of money in the scope of the federal budget, but it will be used to investigate a matter that is of the utmost concern to families across America,” Raskin told me Wednesday.
But some researchers said that the federal government is still investing far too little and that it could be years before the time-intensive research fully bears fruit.
Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association, said that while he was “grateful” for lawmakers’ attention to the issue, another $15 million “is really just scratching the surface of what’s necessary.”
Major studies looking into children’s mental health can cost millions, and long-term research into areas like development could take half a decade or more to complete, noted Prinstein, who also serves as a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina.
Fully grasping “how to best help children” could take “at least 10, if not 50, times more in funding” from the federal government, he argued.
There are also questions about the longevity of the program, which requires lawmakers to appropriate new funds annually to keep it afloat.
Markey said he was “very hopeful” that their initiative would be “a foundation that’s going to lead to substantial additional funding for the study of this young person mental health crisis.”
“We will have to figure out some way to have a continual source of research and interpretation on the question of children’s health and social media,” Raskin said.
The appropriations package extended the previous year’s funding for the program, although the dollar amount is not explicitly linked in the bill text, according to a Markey aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly speak on the matter.
The push to probe potential links between youth mental health and social media comes as lawmakers forge ahead with sweeping new proposals, from expanding guardrails for children online to restricting their access to platforms altogether.
Many of those efforts face opposition from industry and digital rights groups, who argue they threaten to shut young people off from positive online resources and experiences, particularly marginalized youth.
While lawmakers are calling for additional research in the area, “we know enough already to put an end to Big Tech’s invasive data practices, especially those involving children,” said Markey, who has spearheaded efforts to expand children’s privacy protections at the federal level.
“We need all the information we can get to inform public policy,” Raskin said.
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- A quick note: Tuesday’s newsletter was updated to clarify that the U.S. Marshals Service was enlisted for some, not all, of the executives under subpoena during the Senate hearing in January on child online safety.
Daybook
- Columbia University hosts an event, “AI’s Impact on the 2024 Global Elections,” today at 1:30 p.m.
- AEI hosts an event, “Connecting America: Getting Taxpayers Their Money’s Worth in Broadband Expansion,” today at 2 p.m.
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The six victims presumed dead in the Baltimore bridge collapse were fathers, husbands and hard workers; at least some of them had traveled to this country for a life they hoped would be prosperous and long. https://t.co/SRaMbJUkUI
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 27, 2024
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