Dr. Amy Green, head of research at Hopelab, testified before California's State Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee that social media presents both genuine harms and essential lifelines for LGBTQ+ young people.
Drawing on comprehensive national surveys conducted with Common Sense Media and the Born This Way Foundation, Green presented research showing that while social media algorithms can amplify body image anxieties and facilitate harassment, these platforms also provide crucial connection and validation for queer and trans youth—particularly those in hostile or unsupportive environments.
"For many queer and trans young people, online communities aren't luxuries. They're necessities," Green said, noting that teenagers questioning their identity might find their first supportive space on social media, and youth in rural areas or restrictive households may discover transformative digital connections unavailable in their physical worlds.
Green emphasized that policymakers often overlook the voices of the young people most affected by social media regulations. She cautioned that one-size-fits-all restrictions could inadvertently harm LGBTQ+ youth by limiting access to anonymous support communities and peer connections.
"We need safeguards against genuine harms—effective mechanisms against harassment, protections against exploitation, transparency about algorithmic amplification of harmful content," Green said. "But those safeguards must be designed with full awareness that restricting platform access might harm LGBTQ+ youth more than it helps them."
The committee hearing represented progress in acknowledging that different young people use social media differently and experience its effects differently, Green said. Effective policy requires understanding actual data about how marginalized young people use these platforms and what they gain or lose from them.
Sustainable solutions, she added, require collaboration among technologists, policymakers, researchers and most importantly, LGBTQ+ young people themselves.
