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Comment by frozenport | Hacker News Reader

>>> These articles assume that techies have access to secret wisdom about the harmful effects of technology on children. Based on two decades of living among, working with, and researching Silicon Valley technology employees, I can confidently assert that this secret knowledge does not exist.

LOL, this didn't age well. See for example Facebook's attempt to suppress reports on how their technology is harmful to teen girls.

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I think the idea that Facebook is "harmful to teen girls" is just media sensationalism. That's not an accurate representation of what Facebook's internal reports showed. The report had 12 measures of well-being and found that instagram had positive impact on 11/12 and negative impact on 1/12. The media, naturally, sums this up as "Facebook knows it harms girls and does it anyway!!!"

https://about.fb.com/news/2021/09/research-teen-well-being-a...

In my view, it's quite positive that Facebook is studying the impact of their platform on teens. I don't think that's a standard that major media companies, e.g. The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times, live up to. I also think it's commendable that Facebook internally confronts problems with their product in terms of impact on teens. I have some concerns that the media's hysterics will disincentivize companies from studying this kind of thing for fear that it will exploited by the media.

> See for example Facebook's attempt to suppress reports on how their technology is harmful to teen girls.

Pretty sure that was confirmed as sensational reporting at best almost immediately. Though the major news organization didn't let facts get in the way of dunking on Facebook.

Mark was on Lexes podcast counter arguing against that. Any link? I'm really interested in the source material.

Here’s a pretty good summary, with annotated versions of the Facebook slides. https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22701445/facebook-instagr...

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