Testimony

Testimony in Support of the Vermont Kids Code (S.69)

Feb 2025 🇺🇸 Design It For Us

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.

Returning to Vermont's legislature a year later, Zamaan Qureshi testified before the Senate Committee on Institutions in support of SB 69, a renewed version of the Vermont Kids Code. Speaking as co-chair of what he said was by then a 200-plus-member youth coalition, he described platform features — endless scroll, autoplay, opaque recommendation algorithms — that he associated with compulsive use among his generation, and said some peers had developed depression, anxiety, or eating disorders, or, in the gravest cases, died by suicide, following experiences he linked to social media use. He pointed to the U.S. Surgeon General's social media advisory and to internal Meta materials surfaced by whistleblower Frances Haugen as evidence that platforms were aware of these associations. TechKids Foundation includes this testimony as documented youth-advocate framing of design-code legislation.

200+ member coalition

Qureshi's testimony states that Design It For Us had grown to over 200 members from across the country and internationally by February 2025.

CITATION

Qureshi, Zamaan. Testimony before the Vermont Senate Committee on Institutions on S.69 (the Vermont Kids Code). Design It For Us, February 18, 2025. https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2026/Workgroups/Senate%20Institutions/Bills/S.69/Witness%20Testimony/S.69~Zamaan%20Qureshi~Testimony%20from%20Design%20It%20For%20Us~2-18-2025.pdf

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