RELATED:\u00a0\u2018She died by design\u2019: Grieving mothers condemn Meta as trial begins in Oakland<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cYoung men and boys in California are really struggling, and the data is telling us that they need our help in finding direction and purpose,\u201d said Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, D-Anaheim.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is very unlikely that we will ever be able to provide a counter that is as consuming and addicting and attractive than what we are seeing today in the social space, but really focusing on developing alternatives to ensure folks at least have that option will make a big difference in being able to support our young individuals, especially our young boys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Valencia, who chairs the committee, has made addressing the mental health issues this demographic deals with a priority. A bill<\/a> he authored, which directs the state\u2019s Office of Suicide Prevention<\/a> to add young men and boys to its priority population list, was passed by the Senate last week and is on its way to the governor\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n The committee\u2019s inaugural hearing, held in Sacramento on Wednesday, Aug. 12<\/a>, was largely informational and focused on the digital environments that occupy so much of a young person\u2019s development, as well as how policymakers can create guardrails to design better digital systems for young men.<\/p>\n Ultimately, changes are happening rapidly at all levels of society, but especially for children, in terms of how they build relationships, the hobbies and interests they pick up, how they learn and how they mature into adults, said Alok Kanojia, a psychiatrist who specializes in technology addiction in young people.<\/p>\n But those changes, whether they be societal or technological, aren\u2019t what\u2019s scariest to him: It\u2019s that parents don\u2019t have the skills to adequately guide their children because the world kids grow up in today is unlike anything their parents are familiar with.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are a parent today, the world that you have to parent in is fundamentally different than any world that has previously existed. And that is because we have highly addictive apps, phones that are infecting and invading every corner of our lives,\u201d said Kanojia, who is also a well-known content creator known as \u201cDr. K\u201d online<\/a>.<\/p>\n The necessary change isn\u2019t to get these young men and boys who are struggling with video game, gambling or porn addictions to identify that they need help, Kanojia said, because they know they already do. What needs to change is the way these problems are approached by themselves, their families and leaders in their communities, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMental health is more than the treatment of mental illness,\u201d Kanojia said. \u201cIf we look at physical health, we all have an implicit understanding that playing sports, being outside, eating healthy \u2014 this is how we maintain a healthy body. But if I were to ask someone, how do you maintain a healthy mind? That understanding is not nearly where it is for physical health.\u201d<\/p>\n The ways boys are educated on the dangers of addictive online spaces, such as porn or online gambling, need to be at the forefront of health education, said Kanojia.<\/p>\n \u201cMost addictive behavior is more about the removal of pain than it is about the giving of pleasure,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we teach children how to regulate their emotions, their vulnerability to gambling and pornography will drop.\u201d<\/p>\n But the discussion around shields and safety also raises the question of liability, and just how responsible social media platforms are for extreme outcomes in a young person\u2019s life, such as suicide, said Mikey Hothi, California director for Common Sense Media<\/a>, a nonprofit organization focused on kids\u2019 safety and well-being in the digital age.<\/p>\n Hothi\u2019s group is pushing a bill in the statehouse this year that, if enacted, would hold large social media companies liable<\/a> for damages if their platform causes physical or mental injury to a minor by allowing families to sue for damages caused by their platform.<\/p>\n \u201cYou go to Toys-R-Us, and you have a toy that\u2019s a choking hazard; if a single kid is harmed, that\u2019s obviously a liability for the manufacturer,\u201d Hothi said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not necessarily the case for social media platforms, and now we\u2019re seeing courts view this through a slightly different lens, where you\u2019re seeing these juries side with survivor parents in these cases,\u201d Hothi said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way to really change the behavior of these platforms is to hit them where it hurts, and that\u2019s their bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n This is at the core of a new lawsuit that 29 states have brought against Meta<\/a>, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which accuse the tech giant of contributing to the mental health crisis by deliberately designing features in its social media platforms to addict children for as long as possible so their personal information can be collected. Opening arguments began this week in Oakland.<\/p>\n On a related front, California lawmakers have tried to find ways to address online porn addiction in young people through age-gating and age signaling legislation.<\/p>\n![\"Assemblymember](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787457760_568_OCR-L-SNAPSHOT-0223.jpg\")
Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, D-Anaheim, is behind a new effort in the statehouse to increase suicide prevention efforts for young men and boys. He\u2019s pictured here at a community event on immigration in August 2025 in Santa Ana. (Photos by Karen Tapia, Contributing Photographer)\u00a0<\/p>\n