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The teen mental health crisis: A reckoning for Big Tech

By Jamie Smyth & Hannah Murphy
Financial Times·
15 mins to read

Content warning: This story discusses mental health issues and suicide. Helplines are listed below.

The last minutes of 16-year-old Ian Ezquerra’s life were spent on Snapchat.

Outwardly, the teenager, who had excelled in school and was a member of its swimming team, was a happy young man. But as his social media use increased, so did his anxiety.

His mother, Jennifer Mitchell, was unaware Ian was viewing dangerous content across a variety of platforms that would be unsuitable for adults,

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