MEDIA ENTREPRENEUR UNITES YOUNG ACTIVISTS WITH POWER BROKERS FOR FIGHT TO MAKE SOCIAL MEDIA SAFE

A media entrepreneur is trying to connect young people disturbed by the impact of social media on mental health with older power players to fight for change in how tech companies do business.

The newly-formed Sustainable Media Center is intent on stopping companies from using algorithms to push damaging information to vulnerable youths, dark things like suicide methods. Venture capitalist and trustee Bradley Tusk has seen it personally; he believes his daughter’s eating disorder was made worse by what she saw online.

It’s a long way from initial hopes that the internet would connect the world for more positive uses, said founder Steven Rosenbaum, former producer of “MTV News: Unfiltered, “ several documentaries and ex-leader of the NYC Media Lab.

“When you find that what you helped build is causing more harm than good, there’s no way you can get up in the morning and not do anything about it,” Rosenbaum said.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in May called for immediate action to protect young people, noting that social media use is near universal but its impact on mental health is not fully understood.