There's been a lot of debate recently about how smartphones affect young people's mental health. But this important conversation rarely mentions how our devices and social media are fueling another epidemic: gun violence.
I've spent more than a decade studying how young people's activities on social media can spill over into physical violence offline. Gun violence is arguably the No. 1 cause of death for American children and teenagers. So why isn't it part of our conversations about how smartphones and technology impact young people?
We often think of online spaces as separate from the "real world." But this distinction makes little sense when nearly all teens are online daily, consuming hours of social media content, and carrying their devices everywhere they go. The "digital streets" are where they interact, create, exchange ideas, and build community—and where they express grief, anger, and despair, taunt and threaten each other, and jostle for status.
Research by myself and others shows how online activity can fuel offline gun violence, whether this takes the form of school shooters radicalized online, gang-affiliated youth trading threats (aka "internet banging"), or teens encouraged to die by suicide on social media. Social media also exposes young people to gun culture, as teens flaunt weapons for clout and make connections to buy guns they are too young to purchase legally.
This online activity often flies under the radar of parents and other adults. A program in Buffalo, N.Y., that alerts parents when teens post pictures of themselves with guns found that many were shocked to learn their child had access to a firearm.
If we pay closer attention to what's happening online, we may be able to deescalate conflict in the moments before grief, anger, and despair turn to aggression. In New York City, a program called E-responder trains violence intervention specialists to identify conflicts brewing online, as well as teens displaying weapons, and reach out directly to the parties involved to mediate. A study of the pilot program found that it successfully intervened in dozens of conflicts.
Technology can help us identify social media activity that may be a precursor to violence. Using AI tools like natural language processing and computer vision, I partner with computer scientists at Columbia University and young people to co-create algorithms that can read emojis and text, understand African American English and social-media-speak, and parse the meaning and emotional tone of posts.
These solutions require a human element to succeed. My research shows that social media strategies work best when paired with genuine, trusting relationships between adults and young people. We must equip parents, teachers, outreach workers, and community members to understand how social media fuels violence and be vigilant about what's happening in the lives of young people they care about.
In SAFELab at the University of Pennsylvania, we are creating trainings and a toolkit of resources about social media for the violence intervention specialists, community leaders, and social workers on the frontlines of the fight against gun violence. Programs like Sandy Hook Promise's Know the Signs prepare educators and students to intervene when someone shows signs they might hurt themselves or others. Existing initiatives that help parents talk to their kids about online safety should expand to cover gun violence.
Most importantly, we must involve youth, as domain experts, in our efforts and draw on their expertise about their own lives. In my research, I partner with young people to understand youth culture and co-develop ethical frameworks for deploying AI tools. My colleagues and I create spaces to listen and learn from the strategies young people already use to have enriching experiences online and avoid conflicts.
At the same time, young people need guidance to navigate the life-and-death stakes social media can create. We need to educate and engage them—and help them educate each other—about how to avoid conflict online and where to turn for help.
We should also lift up positive alternatives to content that glorifies gun culture and foster opportunities for young people to have healthy, safe, joyful interactions online. Project Unloaded's SNUG campaign recruits social media influencers to spread the word that people are "safer not using guns" (SNUG). I'm currently working with data scientists, designers, social workers, and young people to design an AI-powered platform called JoyNet, an online space for Black youth that centers well-being, healing, and joy.
While both have a role to play, we cannot leave it to police and social media platforms to address this problem. Without strong ethical guidelines, informed by youth and communities, AI technologies like the ones I co-build can turn into just another way to over-police youth of color, or stigmatize young people who need support and mental health care. Law enforcement and social media companies need input from young people, parents, and community members to discern what content is truly dangerous and the best ways to handle it to make kids safer—not demonize them.
We worry about how social media is hurting young people, but what if it could also be a tool to stop violence and create thriving, healthy online spaces? Social media gives us a window into young people's lives and emotions and an opportunity to intervene at key moments. It must be front and center when we talk about gun violence—and gun violence should be top of mind as we strive to keep kids safe online.
Dr. Desmond Upton Patton, a pioneer in the interdisciplinary fusion of social work, communications, and data science, is the Brian and Randi Schwartz University professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with appointments in the School of Social Policy & Practice, the Annenberg School for Communication, and the department of psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
