While lawmakers in Washington and Tallahassee consider how to protect children from the harms of social media, Miami's Nicklaus Children's Hospital is taking up the cause with a new digital safety alliance called "Safe and Sound."
Nicklaus Clincal Director For Psychology, Dr. Marisa Azaret, said it's about providing not only families with ways to keep kids safe, but also pediatricians, and other community partners.
"It is urgent that we help the kids and we help the families," Azaret said. "Many young people use social media to compare themselves to others and base their self-worth on superficial metrics such as 'likes,' rather than seeking out healthey, successful relationships."
Michelle Applerouth-Rader is a former high school teacher who joined the campaign. She worries about social media impacts on her three children.
"Teenagers right now, especially, I have a 13-year-old daughter, I have 11-year-old boys, there's so much stuff out there you clearly don't want your children to access," Applerouth-Rader said.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
She said her own daughter has struggled with online bullying.
"There's such an issue of cyberbullying and children using these apps as a form of bullying, things like Snapchat where it's 24 hours up and then it goes away, that's scary," she said.
Those are the threats the digital alliance aims to defend against.
Local
"We wouldn't give our kids the keys to our car and expect them to drive on the highway without appropriate instruction and licensing," said Leyan Phillips, co-founder of the Digital Health Institute for Transformation. "So let's explore taking a similar approach to digital safety, before we let them loose on the digital highway."
You can find out more about the new campaign at digitalsafetyalliance.org.
