KFF Health News
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Juan Campos has been working to save at-risk teens from gun violence for 16 years.
As a street activist in Oakland, California, he has seen the glamor and power of gangs. And he provides support to teens who have exited the juvenile justice system, advocates for them in school, and helps them find housing, mental health services, and substance abuse treatment when needed. I’ll help you.
But he says he has never faced a force as formidable as social media, where small boasts and arguments online can escalate into deadly violence on schoolyards and street corners.
Teenagers post photos and videos of themselves holding guns and stacks of cash on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, sometimes taunting rivals. Campos said it’s difficult to limit the risk of a message spreading quickly through likes and comments.
“It’s not just one or two people trying to lead young people forward, there are hundreds on social media,” he says. Sometimes his warnings are stern, telling the children, “I want to keep you alive.” But “it doesn’t always work out,” he says.
Shamari Martin Jr. was an outgoing 14-year-old who looked up to her teachers in Oakland. His Instagram feed included images of Shamari casually waving a gun and shoving cash in his face, mixed in with videos of his smiling friends. In March 2022, he was shot and killed when the car he was riding in was hit by a hail of bullets. His body was left on the street and paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
In Shyamali’s neighborhood, children join gangs at age 9 or 10 and sometimes bring guns to elementary school, said a friend of Shyamali who works with the anti-violence group Youth Alive. said Violence Disruptor Tonia “Nina” Carter. Shamari “was somewhat involved in that culture” of gangs and guns, Carter said.
Shyamali’s friends expressed their sadness on Instagram with heartbroken emojis and comments such as, “I love you brother, my heart hurts.”
One post was even more creepy. “It’s blood in the water. All we want is revenge.” Rivals posted videos of themselves kicking down flowers and candles at Shamari’s memorial site.
Desmond Patton, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies social media and gun violence, said such online outpourings are often a precursor to more violence.
More than a year later, Shyamali’s death remains unsolved. But the issue remains a volatile one in Oakland, said Bernice Grigsby, a counselor at the East Bay Asian Youth Center who works with gang-involved youth.
“There’s still a lot of gang violence going on over his name,” she said. “It could be something as simple as someone saying, ‘Forget him or forget him,’ but that can be a death sentence. Just having something to do with his name in some way. And you could get killed.”
Last month, the US Surgeon General issued a call to action on the negative effects of social media on the mental health of children and adolescents, calling for “no harm to young people” who may spend hours a day on their phones. warned of “serious risks”. The 25-page report highlighted the risks of cyberbullying and sexual exploitation. He did not mention the role of social media in escalating gun violence.
Researchers, community leaders, and law enforcement across the country, including in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C., are keenly aware of their role. They describe social media as a relentless driver of gun violence.
Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said the impact was “dramatic.”
“What was once communicated on the streets, through graffiti, through tagging, through word-of-mouth rumors, is now being spread and amplified on social media,” he said. “It is intended to embarrass and humiliate others.”
L.J. Punch, a trauma surgeon and director of the Gunshot-Related Injury Clinic in St. Louis, said many conflicts stem from perceived disrespect among unstable youth who lack impulse control and conflict management skills. .
“Social media is a very powerful tool for spreading disrespect,” Punch said. And of all the causes of gun violence, social media-induced resentment is “the most incomprehensible.”
Social media companies are protected by a 1996 law that exempts them from liability for content posted on their platforms. But the deaths of young people are prompting calls to change that.
“When you allow the video that leads to a shooting to be released, you are taking responsibility for what you have released,” said National Violence Prevention Director of Youth Advocacy Programs, an organization that provides alternatives to incarceration for youth. , said Fred Fogg. “Social media is addictive, and it’s intentional.”
People are noting that social media can have particularly harmful effects in areas with high levels of gun violence.
“Social media companies need to be more regulated to ensure they don’t incite violence in Black communities,” said Jabari Evans, an assistant professor of race and media at the University of South Carolina. But he said social media companies are building “structures that put many young black people in situations where they give up on joining gangs, carrying guns to school, or playing violent characters for attention.” It should also contribute to the dismantling of racial discrimination.
Moore, of Los Angeles, said social media companies were “playing a reactionary role.” They are profit-seeking. They don’t want any kind of controls or restrictions that would suppress advertising. ”
The social media company says it will remove content that violates its policies against threatening others or encouraging violence as soon as possible. YouTube spokesperson Jacques Maron said in a statement that the company “bans content that glorifies or mocks the death or serious injury of an identifiable individual.”
The social media company said it was acting to protect the safety of its users, especially children.
Rachel Hamrick, a spokeswoman for Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said the company has spent about $16 billion over the past seven years to keep people posting on its apps safe and that Facebook has 40,000 employees working on safety and security. He said he is hiring. .
“If we believe there is a genuine threat of physical harm or direct threat to public safety, we will remove content, disable accounts and cooperate with law enforcement,” Hamrick said. “As a company, we have every commercial and moral incentive to try to provide as many positive experiences as possible to as many people as possible on Facebook. , we are taking steps to keep people safe.”
The Meta platform generated over $116 billion in revenue in 2022, most of which came from advertising.
Snapchat spokesman Pete Boogaard said the company removes violent content within minutes of being notified. But Fogg noted that hundreds of people may have seen the video before it was taken down.
Even critics admit that the sheer amount of content on social media is difficult to control. Facebook has approximately 3 billion monthly users worldwide. YouTube has approximately 2.7 billion users. There are 2 billion on Instagram. Tara Dabney, director of the Chicago Institute for Nonviolence, said if a company closes one account, individuals can simply open a new one.
“Things may be going well in the community, and then before you know it, something happens on social media and people are shooting at each other,” Fogg said.
At a time when virtually every teenager has a cell phone, many young people have access to guns, and many young people are dealing with mental and emotional health crises, children’s social media feeds are Some say it’s no surprise that violence has made such headlines.
High school “fight pages” are now common on social media, with teens recording and sharing fights as soon as they break out.
“Social media enhances everything,” said the Rev. Cornell Jones, group violence intervention coordinator in Pittsburgh.
Jones said that, like adults, many young people feel validated when their posts are liked and shared.
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“We’re dealing with young people who don’t have a lot of self-esteem, and this ‘love’ they’re getting on social media can fill some of that void,” Jones said. Ta. “But it could also end with you getting shot or going to jail.”
Evans, of the University of South Carolina, said many of today’s teens are technologically sophisticated and skilled at filming and editing professional-looking videos, but they face the consequences of posting violent content. He said he remains naive about the results.
Moore said Los Angeles police are currently monitoring social media for early signs of trouble. Police also search social media after the fact to gather evidence against those involved in the violence.
“People want to get notoriety, but they’re clearly insinuating themselves and giving us an easy path to judge them,” Moore said.
In February, New Jersey State Police filed criminal charges against four teens using video of a vicious assault of a 14-year-old girl at school. The assault victim, Adriana Cucci, died by suicide two days after the video went viral.
Glenn Upshaw, who manages outreach workers at Youth Alive in Oakland, said he encourages teens to express their anger to him rather than on social media. He absorbs it, he said, to make sure the kids don’t do anything stupid.
“I’ve always given young people an opportunity to call and abuse them,” Upshaw said. “They may come and scream, but I’m not going to make a fuss about them.”
Youth Advocacy Program personnel monitor influential social media accounts in the community to de-escalate conflict. “The idea is to get started on it as soon as possible,” Fogg said. “We don’t want anyone to die because of a social media post.”
Sometimes it’s just not possible, Campos said. “You can’t tell them to delete their social media accounts,” he said. “A judge wouldn’t say that either. But I can tell them, ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t post something like that because you’re on probation.'”
Campos said that when he first worked with teens at high risk for violence, “I said if I could save 10 out of 100 lives, I’d be happy.” “Right now, I would be happy if I could save one out of 100 lives.”
This article was created by KFF Health Newsformerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues and is one of our core operating programs on health issues. KFF — An independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.