Prescription for Loneliness?
Last Sunday, May 25th, just over two years after releasing the US Surgeon General’s advisory, “Social Media and Youth Mental Health”, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former US Surgeon General, spoke with host Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” regarding the current state of loneliness and the disconnected world we now live in. This is not a new phenomenon as I was part of a documentary “DSKNECTD” which spoke of the same theme over a decade ago.
As little has happened since the Surgeon General’s advisory over the past 2 years. Dr. Murthy shared his frustration with US lawmakers not providing the legal safeguards such as warning labels and new privacy and safety standards. I am in full agreement with the need for legislative protection to help keep children safe online. I also agree with Dr. Murthy’s recommendation regarding delaying smartphones to children until age 16.
In his interview, Dr. Murthy gave a safety analogy about how crazy it would be to give children an automobile to drive with no safety features or regulations on use. I like the analogy but a point was missed that even with all the safety features, state and federal licensing laws and even law enforcement on our roadways today, parents are still ultimately responsible for ensuring their unlicensed underage children do not race around in the family car in the middle of the night. Parents are also responsible for a component of their child’s drivers education, riding as a passenger in the front seat with their child while they learn to drive with a Drivers Permit. So this is where I would like to extend Dr. Murthy’s analogy.
I believe that parents will always play the most significant role in keeping their children safe growing up. As children are introduced to potentially dangerous activities such as driving a car or spending significant time on social media, parents must sit along side them, educate them and keep them safe as they learn by doing.
Dr. Murthy spoke about a parent of a child that committed suicide after being bullied online. The parent believed they were sitting along side their child by checking their phone regularly. But the child had installed special apps and had multiple social media accounts to keep the parent from monitoring their real activity. I have been saying for more than 20 years that parental controls have been a rigged game against parents. As both a psychologist treating screen addiction and a computer engineer I understand how difficult this is for parents. In his original advisory, Dr. Murthy made a call to action to lawmakers, technology companies, educators, parents and even children themselves. We listened.
In my letter to Dr. Murthy last week, I introduced myself, Sentinel Computers and the work we are doing with the Sentinel LaunchPad which was inspired by his advisory two years ago. I explained how the LaunchPad puts parents back in charge of keeping their children safe. It does this by helping parents delay smartphone introduction until at least age 16 and yet provides a way for children to stay connected to their friends online in a safe and highly supervised manner. I explained how it allows parents to provide a great deal of direct supervision initially and then allows increasing autonomy and privacy as the child matures. Since less than half of parents use parental controls, we have worked hard to make this easier for parents and more difficult for children to work around. The LaunchPad was designed with child wellbeing as a top priority.
Dr. Murthy, we thank you for your service as the US Surgeon General and we proudly introduce the Sentinel LaunchPad inspired by your call to action.