【中美创新时报2025 年 1 月 28 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）现在，一群马萨诸塞州议员和司法部长安德里亚·坎贝尔 (Andrea Campbell) 提出了一项法案，限制学生在校期间使用智能手机，目的是减少他们浏览 Instagram 和 TikTok 等平台的时间。《波士顿环球报》记者约翰·希利亚德对此作了下述报道。
抑郁。焦虑。上瘾。卫生官员警告说，年轻人使用社交媒体正在加剧心理健康危机。一位前卫生局局长呼吁对社交媒体发出警告，就像对香烟发出警告一样。
现在，一群马萨诸塞州议员和司法部长安德里亚·坎贝尔 (Andrea Campbell) 提出了一项法案，限制学生在校期间使用智能手机，目的是减少他们浏览 Instagram 和 TikTok 等平台的时间。
德布·施米尔 (Deb Schmill) 说，这种保护对年轻人至关重要。她 18 岁的女儿贝卡 (Becca) 于 2020 年因意外服用过量芬太尼药物而死亡，这些药物是她通过社交媒体认识的毒贩获得的。施米尔说，她的女儿在被她在社交媒体上认识的一名青少年强奸后开始吸毒，并遭受了可怕的网络欺凌。
“我们知道社交媒体的目的是让我们的孩子不断上网；这不是错误，”坎顿居民施米尔说，她以女儿的名义建立了一个基金会，以支持保障青少年和年轻人福祉的政策。“而现在，我们给了他们一个他们上瘾的设备，我们让他们整天带着它走来走去。”
本学期，立法者至少提交了七项法案，旨在限制学生在学校使用手机和社交媒体。州参议员约翰·维利斯 (John Velis) 是韦斯特菲尔德的民主党人，他起草了其中一项法案，他说社交媒体“无处不在”。
对于年轻人，维利斯说：“我只是真的很担心它的影响。”
坎贝尔去年对拥有 Instagram 和 TikTok 的 Meta 提起诉讼，指控其制造了旨在让年轻人上瘾的产品。他支持一项禁止学生在学校使用手机的法案。该法案还将迫使社交媒体公司采取措施，例如确定用户是否符合年龄要求，并为未成年人创建确保隐私和限制长时间使用的环境。
此外，根据坎贝尔办公室的说法，它还要求公司警告人们“社交媒体使用对社交、情感和身体健康的负面影响”。
州参议院议长凯伦·斯皮尔卡 (Karen Spilka) 的发言人没有给出法案何时被分配给立法委员会的时间表，但在一份声明中表示，“支持学生的心理健康和福祉一直是我们的首要任务。”
众议院议长罗纳德·马里亚诺没有回应置评请求。
健康专家对年轻人过度使用社交媒体可能对健康产生的影响发出了越来越严厉的警告。去年，时任美国卫生局局长的维韦克·穆尔蒂呼吁在社交媒体平台上张贴警告标签。他在《纽约时报》的一篇文章中表示，警告将指出“社交媒体与青少年的严重心理健康危害有关”。
穆尔蒂说，社交媒体正在加剧美国年轻人面临的心理健康危机。他说，每天在社交媒体上花费超过三个小时的青少年面临的焦虑和抑郁症状风险会增加一倍。（他说，这个年龄段的人每天平均使用社交媒体近五个小时。）他说，近一半的青少年表示社交媒体让他们对自己的身体感觉更糟。
“这些[社交媒体]的危害不是意志力和父母教育的失败；它们是在没有足够安全措施、透明度或问责制的情况下释放强大技术的后果，”穆尔蒂写道。
密歇根大学医学院发育行为儿科医生兼助理教授珍妮·拉德斯基博士表示，青少年需要“第三空间”。这个空间是远离教室或家庭的地方，他们可以在这里成长、与同龄人相处并更多地了解自己。
传统上，课后活动、运动队和当地图书馆等机构发挥了这一作用。现在，社交媒体是第三空间，拉德斯基警告说，这对年轻人来说并不总是一个安全的环境。
“社交媒体不是一个中立的空间。它是一个优先考虑收入、广告浏览量和数据收集的空间，”她说。
Meta 发言人在给《波士顿环球报》的一份声明中表示，公司知道家长们担心青少年在网上“有不安全或不适当的经历”。Meta 已经创建了青少年账户，其中包括限制谁可以在线联系他们的保护措施。对于 16 岁以下的青少年，账户需要家长许可才能更改设置。
“我们还让家长对青少年使用 Instagram 的情况进行更多的监督，让他们可以查看青少年在与谁聊天，并阻止他们每天使用该应用超过 15 分钟，或在特定时间段（如在校期间或晚上）使用该应用，”Meta 发言人说。
TikTok 和 X（前身为 Twitter）的代表没有回应单独的置评请求。
据美联社报道，至少有八个州——加利福尼亚州、佛罗里达州、印第安纳州、路易斯安那州、明尼苏达州、俄亥俄州、南卡罗来纳州和弗吉尼亚州——已经采取措施，禁止或限制学生在学校使用手机。罗德岛州也有一些学校实施了禁令。
在马萨诸塞州，包括布罗克顿、福尔里弗、梅休因和伊普斯威奇在内的少数学校实施了自己的手机禁令。
据伊普斯威奇高中校长乔纳森·米切尔 (Jonathan Mitchell) 称，学校管理人员在本学年开始时就推出了这项政策。他很后悔没有早点实施。
“我们看到孩子们更频繁地互相交谈，他们在走廊里抬着头，午餐时食堂更吵闹。很难用数据量化，但它似乎对学校文化产生了积极影响，”米切尔在一封电子邮件中说。
伊普斯威奇教育者协会主席、英语和语言艺术教师丽贝卡·斯劳森 (Rebecca Slawson) 表示，这项政策是在教育工作者对学生在课堂上被手机分散注意力表示担忧后由教师提出的。
她说，将手机带到高中的学生必须在上课时将手机交给老师，并在下课时取回。
“学生沉迷于手机不是他们的错，”斯劳森说。“这是一种旨在吸引注意力的设备。”
马萨诸塞州州禁令的倡导者施米尔记得，在她女儿被指控殴打后，她女儿越来越依赖手机。施米尔说，她后来遭受的网络欺凌“摧毁了她的世界”。（据施米尔说，她的女儿拒绝对涉嫌强奸她的男孩作证，而且他从未受到指控。）
施米尔说，只要她女儿有手机，她就很容易找到毒品来安慰自己。
她希望州议员有机会投票通过禁止学生在学校使用手机的立法。她相信这些限制将有助于让年轻人有更多离线时间。
“他们需要能够面对面地看待他人，能够建立同理心和社区意识，”施米尔说。“这些东西都消失了。”
题图：尼德姆的 Deb Schmill 在参观贝卡埋葬的牛顿公墓时，手里拿着她 18 岁女儿贝卡的照片。John Tlumacki/Globe 工作人员
附原英文报道：
‘I’m just really concerned’: Mass. moves to ban cellphones in schools amid social media harm to kids
By John Hilliard Globe Staff,Updated January 27, 2025
Deb Schmill of Needham held a photograph of her daughter, Becca at 18 -years -old during a visit to the Newton Cemetery where Becca is buried.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
Depression. Anxiety. Addiction. Health officials caution that social media use among young people is contributing to growing a mental health crisis. One former surgeon general has called for warnings about social media, like those for cigarettes.
Now, a group of Massachusetts state lawmakers and Attorney General Andrea Campbell have filed bills that would restrict students’ access to smartphones when they’re in school, with the goal of reducing the time they spend scrolling through platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
Such protections are vital for young people, said Deb Schmill, whose 18-year-old daughter, Becca, died in 2020 from an accidental overdose of drugs laced with fentanyl she acquired through a dealer she met through social media. Her daughter began using drugs after she was allegedly raped by a teen she met through social media, and endured horrific cyberbullying, according to Schmill.
“We know that social media is purposely designed to keep our kids on constantly; that is not a mistake,” said Schmill, a Canton resident who established a foundation in her daughter’s memory to support policies that safeguard the well-being of teens and young adults. “And here, we’ve handed them a device that they’re addicted to, and we’re letting them walk around with it all day.”
Lawmakers have filed at least seven bills this term that would curb students’ phone and social media use at school. State Senator John Velis, a Westfield Democrat who drafted one of the bills, said social media “follows you everywhere.”
For young people, Velis said, “I’m just really concerned about the impact that that has.”
Campbell, who filed lawsuits last year against Meta, which owns Instagram, and TikTok for creating products designed to be addictive to young people, is backing a bill that would ban students from having phones in school. It would also force social media companies to take such steps as determining if users meet age requirements and create settings for minors that ensure privacy and limit prolonged use.
Additionally, it would require that companies warn people about the “negative effects of social media use on social, emotional, and physical health,” according to Campbell’s office.
A spokesperson for state Senate President Karen Spilka didn’t give a timeline on when the bills would be assigned to legislative committees but said in a statement that “supporting our students’ mental health and well-being has long been a priority.”
House Speaker Ronald Mariano didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Health experts have issued increasingly dire warnings over the potential health impact of heavy social media use by young people. Last year, then-US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for a warning label to be posted on social media platforms. He said in a New York Times essay that warnings would state “that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”
Murthy said social media is contributing to a mental health crisis facing the nation’s young people. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, he said. (The average daily use for this age group, he said, was nearly five hours.) Nearly half of adolescents said social media makes them feel worse about their bodies, he said.
“These harms [of social media] are not a failure of willpower and parenting; they are the consequence of unleashing powerful technology without adequate safety measures, transparency or accountability,” Murthy wrote.
Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician and an assistant professor at the University of Michigan Medical School, said teens need a “third space.” This space is a place apart from the classroom or their families where they can grow, be among their peers, and learn more about themselves.
Traditionally, this role was served by things such as after-school programs, sports teams, and local libraries. Now, social media is a third space, which Radesky warns isn’t always a safe environment for young people.
“Social media isn’t a neutral space. It’s a space that prioritizes revenue and ad views and data collection,” she said.
A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement to the Globe that the company knows parents are worried about teens “having unsafe or inappropriate experiences” while online. Meta has created Teen Accounts, which include protections like limiting who can contact them online. For teens under 16, the accounts need parental permission to change the settings.
“We’re also giving parents more oversight over their teens’ use of Instagram, with ways to see who their teens are chatting with and block them from using the app for more than 15 minutes a day, or for certain periods of time, like during school or at night,” the Meta spokesperson said.
Representatives for TikTok and X, formerly Twitter, did not respond to separate requests for comment.
Already, at least eight states — California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia — have measures in place that ban or restrict students’ use of cellphones in schools, according to the Associated Press. There are also schools in Rhode Island that have implemented bans.
In Massachusetts, a handful of schools, including in Brockton, Fall River, Methuen, and Ipswich, have implemented their own cellphone bans.
At Ipswich High School, administrators launched its policy at the start of the current school year, according to Jonathan Mitchell, the school’s principal. He regrets not implementing it sooner.
“We see kids talking to each other more often, they have their heads up in the hallway, and the cafeteria is louder at lunch. It’s hard to quantify with data, but it appears to have had a positive impact on school culture,” Mitchell said in an email.
Rebecca Slawson, an English and language arts teacher who serves as the president of the Ipswich Educators’ Association, said the policy was proposed by teachers after educators raised concerns about how students were distracted by their phones in class.
Students who bring their phones to the high school have to turn their phones over to teachers at the start of the day and retrieve them when classes end, she said.
“It’s not students’ fault that they are addicted to their phones,” said Slawson. “It is a device that is designed to gobble up attention.”
Schmill, the advocate for a state ban in Massachusetts, remembered how her daughter increasingly turned to her phone after her alleged assault. The cyberbullying she endured afterward “devastated her world,” Schmill said. (Her daughter refused to testify against the boy who allegedly raped her, and he was never charged, according to Schmill.)
As long as her daughter had a device, she could easily find drugs to comfort her, Schmill said.
She hopes state lawmakers have a chance to vote on legislation banning students’ use of phones in schools. She believes those restrictions would help give young people more time offline.
“They need to be able to look at other people face to face, and be able to build empathy and community,” Schmill said. “That stuff, all that’s being lost.”
