Moms’ group launches grassroots fight against social media ‘addiction’

A group of mothers is launching a grass-roots initiative aimed at combating what they call rising “addiction” among kids to social media and other digital tools, bringing a well-connected new entrant into the contentious debate over children’s online safety.

Parental groups have become a major political force in those discussions, making their presence felt in federal talks over potential child protection rules and at the recent blockbuster hearing with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and other tech CEOs.

But the group—Mothers Against Media Addiction, or MAMA—is looking to bring more parents into the fold at the local and state level through grass-roots organizing.

“The movement is still missing the grass-roots power to both educate local communities about the dangers of social media for young people and advocate for policies that will make an impact,” Julie Scelfo, the group’s founder and a former New York Times contributor, told The Washington Post.

Scelfo said MAMA aims to develop a presence across the U.S. by setting up chapters that can serve as a hub to inform parents and help them organize politically. The group has a foothold in Vermont, New York and New Jersey and eyes expansion in over a half-dozen states in 2024.

The new initiative is financially backed by the Center for Humane Technology not-for-profit—led by influential and outspoken social media critic Tristan Harris—and is allying with key legislators driving kids’ online safety efforts at the state level.

Harris, a former Google ethicist, has emerged as a key player in federal discussions about social media’s perceived harms after appearing in “The Social Dilemma” film, which accused digital platforms of fueling tech addiction for profit.

Casey Mock, CHT’s chief policy and public affairs officer, said MAMA will give parents “a space to have supportive conversations” about social media harms and let policymakers “hear directly from parents.”

MAMA is also slated to partner on an event with New York State Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D), who has proposed legislation to bar companies from serving kids “addictive” social media feeds.

Mothers have “an incredibly powerful voice to share” as part of the broader coalition of groups calling for action, Gounardes said. “You don’t want to mess … with the bear cub when the mama bear’s around.”

Scelfo said the group is partly inspired by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), widely viewed as one of the most influential parent-led political advocacy groups. Founded in 1980, it successfully pushed for the passage of legislation that forced many states to raise their minimum age for alcohol consumption to 21 and crack down on drunken driving. Mothers launched it after a 13-year-old girl was struck and killed by a drunk driver in California.

Scelfo argued that the severity of the issues around media “addiction” is “on an even greater scale than what MADD faced with trying to put an end to drunk driving.”

“As terrible as drunk driving is, it occurred with relative infrequence if you compare it to the way in which and the volume at which tech products and social media platforms have invaded the daily life of everyone in this country,” she added.

The science linking social media to child mental health risks is complex and still developing, and the notion that social media can be addictive remains hotly contested.

A 2023 report by the American Psychological Association concluded that social media “is not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people,” and a separate advisory by the U.S. Surgeon General stated that there’s “broad agreement … that social media has the potential to both benefit and harm children and adolescents.”

But the reports also cited instances when social media can exacerbate mental health issues, with the surgeon general warning of “a profound risk of harm” to youth well-being.

For their part, tech companies have taken steps to limit how much time children spend on their sites—including by sending notifications nudging them to take time away from their products—but they have strongly pushed back on claims by regulators that their products are addictive.

Digital-rights groups have also resisted calls to restrict children’s access to digital platforms altogether, arguing they can serve as crucial sources of information and venues for community-building for young people, particularly those in marginalized groups.

One area where there is clear cause for alarm, Scelfo said, are reports linking rising screen time among children to mental health harms, like depression and anxiety.

To that end, the group will be pushing for more schools to become phone-free.

“All of the time on screens is actually displacing activities, relationships and experiences that children need to be having in real life and in school,” she said. “This is alarming.”