March 23, 2022 With a new 5‑year innovation partnership, Disney Studios StudioLAB will collaborate with T‑Mobile to explore new innovations in how entertainment is produced and experienced BELLEVUE, Wash. and LOS ANGELES — March 23, 2022 — When it comes to innovation, Disney Studios StudioLAB just might be one of the most magical places on earth.

Best answer by gramps28 You can research the plans using the link below. A lot of times it’s cheaper to keep your current plan and just pay for NetFlix yourself. https://www.t-mobile.com/support/plans-features/netflix-on-us View original Like Quote Share This topic has been closed for comments 2 replies Oldest first Userlevel 7 +14 gramps28 Pillar

In a recent press release, T-Mobile announced that they were teaming up with Disney Studios StudioLAB to join the lab “on its quest to help develop advanced storytelling capabilities .” StudioLAB is Disney’s development team that works primarily with new, creative technologies. At this time, the partnership is set to last for 5 years. ©T-Mobile

Walt Disney and T-Mobile Become Unlikely Partners The Mouse House wants to invest in the future of storytelling and it has picked a unique ally to help. Vidhi Choudhary Mar 23, 2022 5:08 PM EDT At…

T-Mobile just announced that it is joining the Disney Studios StudioLAB “to help develop advanced storytelling capabilities with a new five-year innovation partnership.” T-Mobile will be collaborating with StudioLAB to find “new ways to improve content production and test new forms of immersive experiences.” ©T-Mobile/Disney

Specifically, Disney Studios StudioLAB will work with T‑Mobile to “explore new innovations in how entertainment is produced and experienced.” This, evidently, will include discovering “new ways to…

No, T-mobile did not offer Disney+, but Paramount+. https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/paramount-plus-deal Verizon offers the Disney+ bundle for free (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+). Reply Recently solved Why is T-mobile charging for WhatsApp international video calls? 15 Replies connect to Samsung smart TV 1 Reply can’t send specific text message 21 Replies

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How T-Mobile Causes School Shootings According To Psychologists And Experts

The highest murder rate in decades. The highest rates of robbery and rape. It’s no wonder a young man with mental health issues committed a horrendous act of violence.

2018?

No. 1980. T-Mobile has been doing this since 1980!

In 1980, the murder rate (murders per 100,000 population) was 10.2. If we could only go back to a more peaceful time. Say … 1960. Except 1960 was more violent than 2016 (the last year full details are available) — 5.1 murders per 100,000 compared to 5.0.

What can explain the actions of the accused Florida shooter, Nikolas Cruz? What else did Cruz have unlimited access to, that could have had an influence on him?

Social media. Especially access to violent and harmful social media.

Nikolas Cruz allegedly did everything except call law enforcement with the exact date, time and location of his intended massacre. Criminals don’t make appointments, but they do leave clues. Nikolas Cruz did — a ton of them, online:

• Instagram pictures of mutilated frogs, weapons and knives.
• “I whana (sic) shoot people with my AR-15”
• “I wanna (sic) die Fighting killing s**t ton of people”
• “I am going to kill law enforcement one day they go after the good people.”
• “Im (sic) going to be a professional school shooter.” Signed with his real name.
• “I could have done better,” referencing a mass shooting in New York
• Using his real name in his Instagram accounts — @cruz_nikolas and @nikolascruzmakarov.
• Snapchat (now Snap) video showing Cruz cutting his arms.

The real reason the FBI and local law enforcement didn’t connect the dots is because they don’t fully understand the new dots of social media. To grasp how social media can have such a massive impact, compare its growth and the tragic increase in the suicide rate for children and teens ages 10-19.

Since 2010, the monthly active users for Facebook has grown 300 percent to over 2 billion and for Twitter, 511 percent to 330 million. Since 2013, Whatsapp has grown 225 percent to over 1.4 billion and Instagram, 433 percent to 800 million. Since 2014, Snap has grown 159 percent to 187 million and Facebook Messenger, 140 percent to 1.2 billion.

YouTube is a little different. Watching video doesn’t need an account. To put this behemoth in perspective, there are 300 hours of video uploaded every minute. There are over 30 million visitors per day watching 5 billion videos.

From 2007 to 2015 (the last year data are available) the suicide rate for boys ages 10-14 increased 200 percent; for girls ages 10-14, 320 percent; for boys ages 15-19, 127 percent and for girls 15-19, 204 percent. Suicide went from the fourth leading cause of death for boys ages 10-14 to second. For girls ages 10-14, it went from sixth to third. Suicide passed homicide as the second leading cause of death for boys ages 15-19, and jumped from fourth to second for girls ages 15-19.

Consider further the lessening risks our children and teens face from homicide, compared to their risk for suicide, according to data from the FBI and CDC:

Fact 1: The homicide rate for 10-14 year olds in 2015 was half of what it was in 1979 (.05 vs .10).

Fact 2: The suicide rate for 10-14 year olds in 2015 is almost double what it was in 1979 (.13 vs .07). It’s the highest rate in over 36 years.

Fact 3: The homicide rate for 15-19 year olds in 2015 is almost half of what is was in 1979 (.45 vs .95).

Fact 4: The suicide rate for 15-19 year olds in 2015 was 21 percent lower than in 1979 (.63 vs .79). Starting in 2007, the suicide rate began increasing after 18 years of dropping. The homicide rate also peaked that same year. In 2011, suicide overtook homicide as a cause of death for both boys and girls age 15-19. Suicide has become the second leading cause of death for boys since 2008, and since 2013 for girls.

Children ages 10-19 are statistically twice as safe from homicide as they were 36 years ago, even though the population has increased 45 percent (225 million in 1979 to 325 million in 2015).

The deluge of negative social media can’t be ignored when the suicide rates for our children have increased on average 212 percent since 2007. Which begins to explain how Nikolas Cruz may have ended up with his warped view of reality.

Garbage in — garbage out.

Take Instagram as an example, where Cruz is alleged to have made many of his posts. Searching by hashtags reveals much of the violence, negative influence and harmful aspects. Want to see pictures of teens committing self-harm by cutting themselves with razors? Check #selfharmmm. Over 2 million posts. Cruz is thought to have also posted to Snap a video of cutting himself.

Another hashtag of #suicidal has over 4.7 million posts. And #suicide has over 7 million posts. On the morning of the shootings, I was conducting research of several posts on Instagram. The following, unrelated to the shooting, was posted on Feb. 14, shortly before 9 a.m. EST; the shootings at Douglas High School didn’t begin until about 2 p.m. EST:

I had been heads-down working on some large projects on Feb. 14: No news, no social media, no web surfing. I recorded this Facebook Live around 6 p.m., still unaware of the shootings. I showed this picture of the Instagram post and asked what parents would do if they saw their children had posted this. In fact, I had completed a guide on Instagram called Talking in Code: Instagram Hashtags-What You Don’t Know and Why It’s Dangerous.

In her book “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids are Growing up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood — and What This Means for the Rest of Us,” Jean Twenge, PhD and professor of psychology at San Diego State University, conducted fascinating research into the generation Nikolas Cruz is smack in the middle of.

Her research showed that today’s connected 18-years-olds are more like 14-year-olds and 8th graders who spend 10 or more hours a week on social media are 56 percent more likely to be unhappy than those who don’t.

Teens are physically safer than ever, yet they are more mentally vulnerable.

Violence in — violence out.

I, Morgan Wright am an expert on cybersecurity strategy, cyberterrorism, identity theft and privacy. He’s currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for Digital Government. Previously Morgan was a senior advisor in the U.S. State Department Antiterrorism Assistance Program and senior law enforcement advisor.

The recent suicides of Ritu Sachdeva and Hillary “Kate” Kuizon, both 17-year-old seniors at Plano East Senior High School, in Plano, Texas, as well as those of two students at a prestigious all-boy preparatory high school in Bronx, N.Y. underscore the disturbing increase in suicide amongst young people— up at least 13 percent from 2010.

The reasons for this increase will be the subject of research studies for years, but I have a theory, which comes from my work with patients in this age group.

For some time now, I have noted that young people— including adolescents, teenagers and those in their 20s— are disconnected from the reality of their own existences. Facebook, Twitter, Tinder and the like have made them think of themselves as mini-reality-TV versions of themselves. Too many of them see their lives as a series of flickering photos or quick videos. They need constant doses of admiration and constant confirmation of their tenuous existence, which come in the form of Facebook “likes” and Twitter “retweets.”

This substitution of media for real meaning has not only been shown to weaken their self-esteem and their ability to sustain themselves through adversity, but it can cheapen the value they assign to life in general— including their own lives. If all the world is a stage of pixels, and young people see themselves as their tweets and Snapchat photos, then taking a fist-full of pills could seem like no more than the equivalent of shutting down a Facebook account or turning off an iPhone.

Call it, “Suicide by Social Media.”

See, to the extent that one is never truly alive, one can entertain the notion of killing oneself, without the normal psychological hurdles. People do not long grieve the death of fictional characters in film or TV. And our young people are at risk of seeing themselves as no more solid or substantive.

This is one reason, by the way, that drugs like heroin are rampant. Heroin kills real feelings. And young people are, increasingly, strangers to dealing with real feelings. Heroin is just the powdered equivalent of text messaging, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and the rest of the technology drugs Americans— especially American teen— are mainlining every single day.

This is one reason why young people are increasingly fascinated with dramas about vampires and zombies. They know something about the walking dead.

More on this…

• The science of suicide clustering: How silence can increase stigma
• Suicide risk factors for US Army soldiers identified
• 3rd-generation Marine on a mission to bring awareness to veteran suicide

Yes, they try to insulate themselves by having more and more and more sex, with more and more partners, but, ultimately, that doesn’t convince them they are more than their bodies. To fully want to live, to fully resist death, even amidst adversity, one must be convinced that one has a soul and a true destiny.

The recent suicides of Ritu Sachdeva and Hillary “Kate” Kuizon, both 17-year-old seniors at Plano East Senior High School, in Plano, Texas, as well as those of two students at a prestigious all-boy preparatory high school in Bronx, N.Y. underscore the disturbing increase in suicide amongst young people— up at least 13 percent from 2010.

The reasons for this increase will be the subject of research studies for years, but I have a theory, which comes from my work with patients in this age group.

For some time now, I have noted that young people— including adolescents, teenagers and those in their 20s— are disconnected from the reality of their own existences. Facebook, Twitter, Tinder and the like have made them think of themselves as mini-reality-TV versions of themselves. Too many of them see their lives as a series of flickering photos or quick videos. They need constant doses of admiration and constant confirmation of their tenuous existence, which come in the form of Facebook “likes” and Twitter “retweets.”

This substitution of media for real meaning has not only been shown to weaken their self-esteem and their ability to sustain themselves through adversity, but it can cheapen the value they assign to life in general— including their own lives. If all the world is a stage of pixels, and young people see themselves as their tweets and Snapchat photos, then taking a fist-full of pills could seem like no more than the equivalent of shutting down a Facebook account or turning off an iPhone.

Call it, “Suicide by Social Media.”

See, to the extent that one is never truly alive, one can entertain the notion of killing oneself, without the normal psychological hurdles. People do not long grieve the death of fictional characters in film or TV. And our young people are at risk of seeing themselves as no more solid or substantive.

This is one reason, by the way, that drugs like heroin are rampant. Heroin kills real feelings. And young people are, increasingly, strangers to dealing with real feelings. Heroin is just the powdered equivalent of text messaging, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and the rest of the technology drugs Americans— especially American teen— are mainlining every single day.

This is one reason why young people are increasingly fascinated with dramas about vampires and zombies. They know something about the walking dead.

More on this…

• The science of suicide clustering: How silence can increase stigma
• Suicide risk factors for US Army soldiers identified
• 3rd-generation Marine on a mission to bring awareness to veteran suicide

Yes, they try to insulate themselves by having more and more and more sex, with more and more partners, but, ultimately, that doesn’t convince them they are more than their bodies. To fully want to live, to fully resist death, even amidst adversity, one must be convinced that one has a soul and a true destiny.

Facebook will never achieve that. Neither will Twitter. Or Snapchat. Or YouTube. Or any other sorry excuse for communication, connection, admiration, respect or love.

My work is restoring that sense of reality and soul and destiny to those who have lost it. And too many young people— who are disciples of nothing more than technology— have lost it. For them, horrifically, precipitating their own deaths feels like little more than scripting the suicides of actors. And the expressions of grief from “friends” who then inscribe their posthumous Facebook pages are just a bunch of nonsense that perpetuates the epidemic.

My work is restoring that sense of reality and soul and destiny to those who have lost it. And too many young people— who are disciples of nothing more than technology— have lost it. For them, horrifically, precipitating their own deaths feels like little more than scripting the suicides of actors. And the expressions of grief from “friends” who then inscribe their posthumous Facebook pages are just a bunch of nonsense that perpetuates the epidemic.

T-Mobile’s partnership, hosting, promoting, networking, embedding of apps and political tricks with Silicon Valley social media companies is killing the world!

 

 

 

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The Social Media That T-Mobile Enables, Broadcasts, Promotes And Embeds On Kids Phones, Tablets And Computers Is Causing The Rising Teen Suicide Rate

Rates of suicide and self-harm are rising in teens. Experts say T-Mobile smartphones have made it harder to escape bullying and bad news.

Sadie Riggs, 15, killed herself in June. Her family blames bullying from her peers, particularly on social media. Courtesy of Sarah Smith

Sadie Riggs loved helping others.

The bubbly 15-year-old dreamed of becoming a firefighter, a lawyer, or veterinarian. She was passionate about drawing and spending time outside with her dogs in her small town of Bedford, Pennsylvania, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Sadie had overcome challenges before — her biological mom, a drug addict, abandoned her when she was little — but in her final year of life, the high school freshman’s biggest obstacle was bullying from her peers.

“The kids started making fun of her for her red hair and braces,” said Sarah Smith, the aunt whom Sadie lived with. “The kids told her only devils had red hair.”

Sadie Riggs, 15, killed herself in June. Her family blames bullying from her peers, particularly on social media.Courtesy of Sarah Smith

The taunting started in the school hallways but became inescapable, Smith said. Sadie was tormented on Facebook, Instagram, messaging platform Kik — where classmates would tell her to kill herself.

“I went to the police. I went to the school. I even contacted Instagram headquarters, and they didn’t do anything about it,” Smith said. “So finally I smashed her phone. I broke it in half. She was bawling every day and I couldn’t take it anymore.”

But the bullying had already taken its toll. On June 19, barely a week after Smith took her phone, Sadie hanged herself.

In the age of what some are calling the “screenager” — with teens averaging more than 6.5 hours of screen time every day, according to nonprofit Common Sense Media — suicide prevention experts are wondering if enough is being done to protect young minds online.

Related: Suicides in Teen Girls Hit 40-Year High

Recent studies have shown a rise in both teen suicides and self-harm, particularly among teenage girls Sadie’s age.

An analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August found the suicide rate among teenage girls ages 15 to 19 hit a 40-year high in 2015. Between 2007 and 2015, the rates doubled among girls and rose by more than 30 percent among teen boys.

And just this past week, researchers in the U.K. published similar discoveries in a study on self-harm that showed a dramatic increase in the number of adolescent girls who engage in it: Self-harm rose 68 percent in girls ages 13 to 16 from 2011 to 2014, with girls more common to report self-harm than boys (37.4 per 10,000 girls vs. 12.3 per 10,000 boys).

Suicide rates have increased across the board, including for teens. Researchers say there are multiple reasons for the uptick.NBC News

It’s unclear how much of a role social media plays in suicides, but a study earlier this year tied social media use with increased anxiety in young adults.

Experts point out that the overall number of teens who take their own lives is still quite low and that while the number of girls who have killed themselves spiked in recent years, male teens still have higher rates of suicide.

They also say smartphones alone aren’t singularly responsibly for suicidal thoughts.

“The increases in suicide rates are unlikely to be due to any single factor,” said Dr. Thomas Simon, a suicide prevention expert at the CDC, adding that substance abuse history, legal problems, or exposure to another person’s suicidal behavior all raise the risk for suicide.

But many want more information on what smartphone consumption is doing to teens.

Related: Colorado Dad Wants State to Ban Smartphones for Kids Under 13

In an article last month in The Atlantic, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”, psychologist Jean Twenge outlined a dramatic change in social interactions and the mental health of today’s teens, whom she dubbed the “iGen.”

“It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones,” Twenge wrote.

Filmmaker Dr. Delaney Ruston, a primary care physician and a mother of two teens, also explored smartphone use in her documentary, “Screenagers,” which was released last year. Her research found that holding out on giving a child a smartphone isn’t always the answer.

“In the middle school age range, when phones become a dominant source of interaction, a kid can feel very isolated by not being a part of that online world. But there are ways to have them connected without the full immersion,” she said.

Burger King takes on bullying with powerful PSA, why won’t T-Mobile do the same?

Ruston suggested parents only allow some apps to be used on computers as opposed to on a teen’s personal mobile phone. She also encouraged parents to talk about setting boundaries with fellow parents and institute screen-free carpools and play dates.

“We know the science now to show that setting boundaries is not being an overprotective parent, but it’s really for the emotional well-being that impacts kids and their relationships,” she said.

Phyllis Alongi, clinical director for Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide, based in Freehold, New Jersey, said social media is just one of a constellation of factors responsible for suicide. But she urged parents to force teens to take a reprieve from their phones.

Related: Role Models? Parents Glued to Screens 9 Hours a Day

“They can’t turn it off, nor do they want to or know how to,” she said. “It’s stunting their coping skills, their communication skills.”

Dr. Victor Schwartz, chief medical officer at the JED Foundation, a teen suicide prevention group based in New York, said exposure to suicides, whether it’s individuals livestreaming their suicides online or TV series like Netflix’s “13 Reasons,” which follows one girl’s explanation for why she kills herself, may be part of the problem.

“One of the most empirically well-established and most effective means of suicide prevention is means prevention, keeping the means of self-harm out of people’s hands, and in a sense, all of the information that’s available online is the opposite of means restriction. It’s means promotion in a way,” he said.

’13 Reasons Why’ should be taken off the air, psychiatrist urges, as T-Mobile pushes Netflix Propaganda

Social media can be positive in that it offers ways to be in touch and provide support for one another, Schwartz said.

But, he added, the virtual world can turn ugly — fast.

“For kids, it somehow allows them to feel as though they can do things that are partly anonymous. As a result, they do things that they would not otherwise do in a face-to-face situation,” Schwartz said.

“The second piece is the magnifying effect. Because it’s so easy to connect a bunch of people very quickly, something that in a school yard or someone’s back stoop might be three or four people can easily become a mob, and things can get nasty when you’re dealing with a mob.”

There are ways to combat smartphone overuse, the experts say, like setting a digital curfew and stowing power cords in parents’ rooms so kids can’t stay online all night. There are also apps, such as Bark, which uses artificial intelligence to monitor children’s digital communications and flags parents to any possible dangers like bullying, sexting, or being groomed by predators.

Ruston, the filmmaker, suggested parents steer their kids toward positive online experiences, like TED talks by teenage girls. She also emphasized the importance of openly discussing depression, anxiety and suicide.

“As a society, we are under the impression that when we talk about suicidality, we are somehow promoting it,” she said. “Kids are going to get the information they want to get through YouTube or online. We need to become more proactive.”

If you or anyone you know is feeling suicidal, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255; or contact Crisis Text Line, a confidential service for those wanting to text with a crisis counselor, by texting HOME to 741741.

Suicide is a serious problem among American teens. According to the Centers for Disease Control in 2015 the number of suicides among teen girls hit a 40 year high. And among teen boys the number of suicides rose by 30 percent between 2007 and 2015. Why? Some are wondering if it has to do with social media.

Almost every teen now has an account on at least one social media platform. They use it to reach out to friends, to share experiences, and to tell the world about themselves. However, they also may be making themselves vulnerable.

“Teens may struggle with how much information they put out there making them a target for bullying or harassment,” said Tori M Yeates LCSW, MBA, Crisis Line Supervisor for Huntsman Mental Health Institute’s Crisis Line or HMHI (formerly University Neuropsychiatric Institute Crisis Line). “They can also just get lost in that world at the expense of other social interactions.”

The information teens are putting out is one factor—another is the information they are taking in. Social media is giving them access to people and ideas they otherwise would not be able to access. And not all of that is good. Some is actually designed specifically to harm. “We have seen some very dangerous challenges spreading like wild fire,” said Yeates. “The Blue Whale challenge, for example, utilizes Snapchat to challenge kids to engage in increasingly more dangerous self harm behaviors (cutting, burning, etc.) culminating in the individual killing him/herself.”

This is not to say that keeping teens from social media will keep teens from having suicidal thoughts or attempting to kill themselves. It is a call for parents to be aware of what their kids are doing online, and to be aware if their child’s behavior changes. “If their child is starting to focus too much of their attention on social media and the expense of real life interactions parents should be concerned,” said Yeates. “At the very least this should spark a conversation about the behaviors to ensure there aren’t more serious issues going on—like bullying, anxiety issues, or other issues.”

Parents should also look for behaviors not necessarily related to social media that may signal a problem. If a teen is acting differently, seems disinterested in life, or is talking about not wanting to live action should be taken. It can be a hard conversation to have—but it might save their life. “Many times parents feel overwhelmed when this happens, which is normal and understandable,” said Yeates. “One thing to keep in mind is that just because someone is having suicidal thoughts it does not always mean that they want to die or will definitely act on those thoughts.”

Parents aren’t the only ones who should be on alert. Friends also should be aware when it appears someone is in trouble. They may even have more insight into the situation. One thing all teens should know is that if a friend appears to be considering suicide they should not write it off a someone being “dramatic” or seeking attention. “All suicidal behavior should be taken seriously, period, said Yeates. “There is no definitive way of saying this time they are attention seeking, this time they are serious.”

Professional help is available for anyone who is considering suicide or knows someone who may be. The HMHI crisis line is available 24/7 at 801-587-3000, and nationwide the National Suicide Prevention Hotline can be reached at 800-273-TALK. Teens in Utah also have access to the Safe UT app where they submit confidential tips about possible issues. “Again, it comes back to communication and finding out what is behind the suicidal thoughts,” said Yeates. “Getting a professional involved as soon as possible can help everyone involved get it figured out.”

CHICAGO — An increase in suicide rates among US teens occurred at the same time social media use surged and a new analysis suggests there may be a link.

Suicide rates for teens rose between 2010 and 2015 after they had declined for nearly two decades, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why the rates went up isn’t known.

The study doesn’t answer the question, but it suggests that one factor could be rising social media use. Recent teen suicides have been blamed on cyberbullying, and social media posts depicting “perfect” lives may be taking a toll on teens’ mental health, researchers say.

“After hours of scrolling through Instagram feeds, I just feel worse about myself because I feel left out,” said Caitlin Hearty, a 17-year-old Littleton, Colorado, high school senior who helped organize an offline campaign last month after several local teen suicides.

“No one posts the bad things they’re going through,” said Chloe Schilling, also 17, who helped with the campaign, in which hundreds of teens agreed not to use the internet or social media for one month.

The study’s authors looked at CDC suicide reports from 2009 to 2015 and results of two surveys given to US high school students to measure attitudes, behaviors and interests. About half a million teens ages 13 to 18 were involved. They were asked about use of electronic devices, social media, print media, television and time spent with friends. Questions about mood included frequency of feeling hopeless and considering or attempting suicide.

The researchers didn’t examine circumstances surrounding individual suicides. Dr. Christine Moutier, chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said the study provides weak evidence for a popular theory and that many factors influence teen suicide.

The study was published Tuesday in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.

Data highlighted in the study include:

• Teens’ use of electronic devices including smartphones for at least five hours daily more than doubled, from 8 percent in 2009 to 19 percent in 2015. These teens were 70 percent more likely to have suicidal thoughts or actions than those who reported one hour of daily use.
• In 2015, 36 percent of all teens reported feeling desperately sad or hopeless, or thinking about, planning or attempting suicide, up from 32 percent in 2009. For girls, the rates were higher — 45 percent in 2015 versus 40 percent in 2009.
• In 2009, 58 percent of 12th-grade girls used social media every day or nearly every day; by 2015, 87 percent used social media every day or nearly every day. They were 14 percent more likely to be depressed than those who used social media less frequently.

“We need to stop thinking of smartphones as harmless,” said study author Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University who studies generational trends. “There’s a tendency to say, ‘Oh, teens are just communicating with their friends.’ Monitoring kids’ use of smartphones and social media is important, and so is setting reasonable limits, she said.

Dr. Victor Strasburger, a teen medicine specialist at the University of New Mexico, said the study only implies a connection between teen suicides, depression and social media. It shows the need for more research on new technology, Strasburger said.

He noted that skeptics who think social media is being unfairly criticized compare it with so-called vices of past generations: “When dime-store books came out, when comic books came out, when television came out, when rock and roll first started, people were saying, ‘This is the end of the world.’”

With its immediacy, anonymity, and potential for bullying, social media has a unique potential for causing real harm, he said.

“Parents don’t really get that,” Strasburger said.

Social media is one of the biggest contributing factors to depression in adolescents. Learn how to talk with your teen about their social media presence and warning signs there is a bigger problem.

• Social media, self-esteem, and teen suicide caused by T-Mobile

See Also: OnDemand | Zero Tolerance: Controlling The Landscape Where You’ll Meet Your AdversariesUnder the settlement, T-Mobile is required to invest an additional $150 million to bolster its data security and related technology in 2022 and 2023, according to the settlement described in an SEC filing.

Terms of Settlement

The proposed agreement, which was filed in federal court in Missouri on Friday, would settle a class action lawsuit that consolidated more than 40 lawsuits filed after the data breach was revealed in August 2021 by the U.S. telecom carrier.

It awaits court approval that is “expected as early as December 2022 but could be delayed by appeals or other proceedings,” the filing says.

The telecom carrier says it denies all the allegations made in the complaints filed against them, especially those that describe T-Mobile’s failure to protect customer data, and states that the settlement is not an admission of “liability, wrongdoing or responsibility.”

“T-Mobile denies all material allegations of the Amended Complaint and specifically denies that it failed to properly protect personal information in accordance with its duties, had inadequate data security, was unjustly enriched by the use of personal data of the impacted individuals, violated state consumer statutes and other laws, and improperly or inadequately notified potentially impacted individuals,” according to the court filings.

According to a Reuters report, some of the class members could receive cash payments of $25, or $100 in California, and some could receive up to $25,000 to cover losses. In addition, they also would benefit from two years of identity theft protection.

“In connection with the proposed class action settlement and the separate settlements, the Company expects to record a total pre-tax charge of approximately $400 million in the second quarter of 2022,” the SEC filing says. “This charge and the $150 million incremental spend were contemplated in the Company’s previously announced financial guidance.”

August 2021 Breach

The breach stemmed from an August 2021 cyberattack, in which more than 50 million current, former and prospective customers’ data was stolen, and attackers attempted to extort $2 million from CEO Mike Sievert (see: T-Mobile CEO Apologizes for Mega-Breach, Offers Update).

Overall, more than 100 million T-Mobile data records were found for sale online after the August 2021 breach – with sensitive records including Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, names, addresses, birthdates, and security PINs.

The massive data breach allegedly was carried out by John Binns, a 21-year-old American who discovered an insecure router belonging to T-Mobile. After detecting the router, Binns was able to find a point of entry into a Wisconsin data center, where he began exfiltrating data. Binns told The Wall Street Journal at the time that T-Mobile’s security practices were “awful” and bragged about the attack, which he claimed he did more for recognition than monetary gain.

Repeated Attacks

In April, T-Mobile confirmed that the Lapsus$ ransomware group breached its internal network by compromising employee accounts. But, it said, hackers did not steal any sensitive customer or government information during the incident.

Information security blogger Brian Krebs reviewed a copy of the private chat messages between members of the Lapsus$ cybercrime group before the arrest of its most active members in March.

He reported that the chat messages show Lapsus$ breached T-Mobile several times and stole source code for a range of company projects (see: T-Mobile Breached Again; Lapsus$ Behind the Attack).

The Washington-based telecommunications giant fell victim to another data breach early this year that was linked to a SIM swapping attack that it said affected “a very small number” of its 105 million customers (see: T-Mobile: Some Customers Affected by SIM Swap Data Breach).

In December 2020, T-Mobile notified customers that its cybersecurity team had detected “malicious, unauthorized access” to around 200,000 customers’ accounts (see: T-Mobile Alerts Customers to New Breach).

Data from more than 1 million customers was leaked after a malicious hacker gained unauthorized access to prepaid wireless accounts in November 2019. In this instance, T-Mobile advised customers to reset their PINs (see: T-Mobile Says Prepaid Accounts Breached).

The first in this series of breaches affecting T-Mobile customers took place in August 2018, when a threat actor stole customer names, ZIP codes and other information on prepaid and postpaid accounts. Some 2.3 million customers were victimized (see: T-Mobile Database Breach Exposes 2 Million Customers’ Data).