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"Can't Look Away": New Documentary on Online Safety Examines the Dark Side of Social Media

Apr 2025 🇺🇸 Democracy Now!

Suicide and self-harm are complex and never caused by one factor alone. Problematic screen use, cyberbullying, harmful content, and online exploitation may increase risk or intensify existing distress. If someone is in immediate danger or emotional crisis in the United States, call or text 988.

Outside the U.S.? Find your local helpline at findahelpline.com.

In this April 2025 Democracy Now! interview (aired in two segments), co-director Matthew O'Neill and Social Media Victims Law Center attorney Laura Marquez-Garrett discuss Can't Look Away, the documentary O'Neill made with Perri Peltz. O'Neill says the research behind the film revealed harm "so much worse than we ever imagined," and the pair describe platform recommendation systems as capable of steering teenagers toward material involving self-harm, sextortion, or drug contacts, citing a case in which a 16-year-old's short-video feed shifted toward suicide-related content. Marquez-Garrett says her firm represents thousands of families pursuing claims against major platforms. The interview also references Australia's under-16 social media restriction as a policy comparison. TechKids Foundation treats this interview as the filmmakers' own account of what they found while making the documentary, not as an independent clinical or research finding.

~4,000 families represented

Attorney Laura Marquez-Garrett states in the interview that the Social Media Victims Law Center represents roughly 4,000 families in litigation against social media companies.

Case example: a 16-year-old's feed

The interview describes a case in which a teenager's short-video recommendations shifted toward suicide-related content, offered as an example of algorithmic content-steering discussed in the film.

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CITATION

"'Can't Look Away': New Documentary on Online Safety Examines the Dark Side of Social Media." Democracy Now!, April 4, 2025. https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/4/can_t_look_away_new_documentary (companion segment: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/4/can_t_look_away_social_media)

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