Amaira’s room lay untouched—a shrine to a vibrant life cut short. Her parents, still grappling with the void left behind, were determined to confront the giants they held responsible. The tormented parents of a 15 year girl who had committed suicide, were in an extremely miserable plight. It was shocking for them to take in all the events that had occurred. Amaira their sweet girl, was no more. They couldn’t accept the fact that few online social media sites and online games had compelled Amaira to end her life. They had vowed to see no one ever lose their Amaira in the hands of such oppressive giants.

Meanwhile, a massive legal fleet consisting of mighty lawyers and advisors across the country departed from San Francisco Airport for Washington DC. Immense research had been carried out, unparalleled discussions with experts, every solution worked upon any kind of situation that could arise, hefty cheques drawn out for jury members and judges. The final rehearsal before departure had been one flawless performance.

Just as a typical John Grisham novel plot, the stage had been set perfectly for the final legal war between the super rich, super powerful tech companies versus a small lawyer in service of Amaira.

The Supreme Court judges started the case proceedings on Monday morning. Arguments were started to be heard:

The Plaintiff (here Amaira’s lawyer):

1. These companies have created, promoted and advertised social media apps, online games, portable devices like smartphones, tablets, etc. which along with easy accessibility to Internet has led to exponential rise in teens getting addicted to these.

2. Teenagers have been facing severe mental issues like increased anxiety, stress, severe depression, easy fatigability, loneliness, FOMO (fear of missing out) which leads to complications like panic attack, epileptic episodes, aggression issues, bipolar disorders, etc.

3. These youngsters have approx 14-16 hrs of screen time along with poor posture and also without significant physical activities, leading to improper development of bones and muscles, spinal defects, continuous body aches and pains, potbelly, nutritional deficiencies, etc. Computer vision syndrome, a new disorder with increased screentime is seen to be rampantly spreading nowadays.

4. Sedentary lifestyle and stress eating has led to obesity, overweight which could cause Diabetes, kidney diseases, liver diseases, heart diseases, brain stroke, etc. in future

5. The young females following celebrities are idolising unrealistic body images which are unachievable and are seen to have eating disorders like anorexia and bullemia. They are also seen to show symptoms of premenstruation, PCOS, acne, etc

6. There is a peculiar pattern of events seen: Cyberbullying > Social Isolation > Disconnection > Depression > Self harm > Suicidal ideation.

The Defendant (Tech Companies):

1. Before downloading any app, all the information, potential harm, advice, everything is given in terms and conditions and only after agreeing to them one can proceed to use it

2. Help to provide easy connectivity to anyone across the globe, help to build new networks, communicate and help to thrive friend circles.

3. Provide real time news, latest information, education content, make one self sufficient and with online e-commerce order all items just by scrolling and selecting. Life, travel, business, education, etc. everything is at the tip of your finger.

4. There is provision for screen timers, AI prompts and reminders which can reduce one’s display time activity, and see to one’s addiction issues.

5. Age restriction while creating accounts.

The Plaintiff :

They provide with features like algorithmically generated endless feeds to keep users scrolling; intermittent various reward schemes, metrics and graphs to exploit one’s activity and consistent notifications encouraging users to continuously check their accounts. Moreover the age restriction barriers are just for namesake as they are easily overcome by teenagers. There is a need for proper measures to safeguard and change these features for protecting the children from the wrath of mental destruction. These changes need urgent attention for protecting the young adults. It could affect the progeny of the employees of the tech companies too.

The Defendant : ‘left speechless’

The Verdict : It wasn’t only the tech giants to be blamed for Amaira’s activities. But there’s a definite reason to blame these companies for promoting and encouraging such behaviour. The companies are to apologise to the family and pay a compensation fee and immediately remove violent and disturbing content and start screening for users below 16. There is a need for combined effort from these companies and parents and teenagers to tackle the new generation problems. Top priority needs to be given to mental health of teenagers, digital therapeutics and various online and tech support measures to be implemented soon. There could be a provision for banning or restricting these apps usage for the youngsters like implemented in:

1.) Australia bans social media for age below 16

2.) France - law requiring parental consent below 15

3.) Florida state - bans social media below 14 and parental consent needed for 14 - 15 year olds.

#MentalHealthAwareness #EmotionalWellbeing #MentalHealthMatters #MentalHealthTeenagers #SocialMedia #Depression #TeenSupport #TeenWellBeing #SocialMediaBan #CyberSafety