SXSW 2025

Protecting Childhood: Staying Human in a High-Tech Society

Description:

Our kids are glued to their screens. Smartphones and social media are displacing critical, real-life learning experiences, and helping drive an unprecedented youth mental health crisis that is wreaking havoc on kids and devastating families. Julie Scelfo, founder of the grassroots movement Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA), joins with actress Alysia Reiner (Orange is the New Black) to discuss the harms being caused by addictive algorithms, unregulated AI and tech companies’ disregard for child safety, and how to build a world where technology serves humanity — not the other way around.


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Takeaways

  1. Real-world experiences and face-to-face interactions are at the heart of what it means to be human – particularly as a child.
  2. The root cause of the media addiction crisis is corporate greed. Social media companies are prioritizing profits over our kids’ well-being.
  3. MAMA is building a grassroots movement to create a world where real-life experiences remain at the heart of a healthy childhood.

Speakers


Organizer

Elliot Levy, Account Director, Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis


Meta Information:

  • Event: SXSW
  • Format: Panel
  • Track: Tech Industry
  • Track 2
  • Level: Beginner


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