Rick Scott suggests potential link between youth suicide and social media

Rick Scott.

Youth suicide is up. And so is their social media use. Could the two be linked?

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott suggests that’s a question worth answering, even if “correlation does not always indicate causation.”

“A 2018 Pew Research survey found that nearly all U.S. teens ages 13-17 have access to a smartphone and almost half of teens are online ‘almost constantly.’ No generation in American history has been so connected or had so much information at their fingertips,” Florida’s junior Senator noted in a letter to the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook, Alphabet and Snap Inc. sent Monday.

“Coinciding with this rise in social media usage, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted that the suicide rate among U.S. teenagers is significantly and tragically rising. While correlation does not always indicate causation, I do believe this alarming statistic must be urgently investigated,” Scott wrote.

The investigating party is left open in the letter. But Scott’s anger is pretty fixed. The Senator is concerned about a new Instagram-styled product Facebook is targeting to younger demographics, according to the letter.

Scott notes a potential defect in current federal law in the letter, which was released Monday by his Senate office to media.

“I worry that the potential impacts of long-term social media use by children and teens has not received the attention it deserves,” Scott said, noting that the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act does not address “the health impact of prolonged social media use.”

Scott has blasted social media companies recurrently in recent months. Before the presidential election, Scott harangued Twitter, Facebook, and the like for perceived bias against conservatives, a popular theme amid restrictions on posting encountered by former President Donald Trump and others on the right.

He does re-litigate that argument in the lead of the most recent letter but quickly moves to the issue of pernicious effects on the young.

Scott and his successor, Gov. Ron DeSantis, have each staked out positions in opposition to what the current Governor calls “the big tech cartel.” However, DeSantis has yet to take a position as oppositional as Scott’s to social media’s effect on the youth.