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Flashpoint: Is social media dangerous?

Watch Flashpoint every Sunday at 10 a.m. on Local 4 News and Local 4+

DETROIT – It seems everyone is ringing the warning bells over social media.

Is it truly dangerous? It certainly was for one Michigan family that paid an unimaginable price in a cold, calculated digital attack on their son.

The U.S. Surgeon General issued a warning regarding young people and social media. Social media swims in a strange place in our lives -- so many of us are participants in it, we’re influenced by it, and yet -- I’m not sure we even know how to define it. And we sense that it’s potentially hazardous for children and teenagers, but it’s hard to find hard evidence to back that up.

One Michigan family has critical lessons for every family on the dangers of social media. We’ll start with their story and then we’ll talk about what to do about the wide open firehose of social media -- information, disinformation, slander, and enlightenment.

You can view the July 2, 2023, episode of Flashpoint in the video player above.