Keynote speaker, Boston University sociology professor Dr. Jill Walsh, highlighted the dangers of normalizing hate online and how it can affect teenagers.
Philadelphia, PA, December 11, 2024 … More than 400 students and 76 educators from 38 high schools gathered at the Pennsylvania Convention Center to hear from an expert on online hate and learn from each other, taking back what they learned to become agents of positive change in their school communities. With teens reporting rising levels of hate online throughout the United States, education continues to be one of ADL’s most valuable tools to empower students to challenge bias and bigotry.
The ADL Center for Technology and Society found five major social media sites – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and X – failed to enforce its own anti-hate policies. Overall, “severe harassment” has risen 22% among teens online, and LGBTQ+ people were found to be the “most harassed of marginalized groups surveyed” for this ADL report. Similarly, millions of pieces of extremist content and iconography was found on gaming platform Steam. Because of these troubling trends, the theme of this year’s Youth Leadership Conference was combatting online hate.
The keynote address was delivered by Boston University sociology professor and digital advocacy researcher Dr. Jill Walsh. Speaking to the attendees in-person as well as hundreds more virtually, Dr. Walsh drew from her studies on youth development and emerging media, warning of how unchecked hate on the Internet can be a slippery slope, leading to a decline in young people’s mental health.
“Over the past eighteen years of our Youth Leadership Conference, it’s been critical that we listen to our students and adapt for the times we live in,” says Randi Boyette, ADL Philadelphia’s Senior Associate Regional Director. “We designed this conference to inspire and empower teens to push back against the flood of hateful rhetoric online. Technology can be a tool for connection and good, but too often social media algorithms lead many down a path of ignorance and hate. We’re proud to have Dr. Jill Walsh at the conference in the morning and speaking with a group of parents in the evening. Digital hate is a fight we must all engage in.”
In addition to the keynote address, ADL’s Youth Leadership Conference featured breakout sessions for students and educators to discuss lessons learned from Dr. Walsh’s keynote and talk about their own experiences with identity-based bias and online hate. Over a working lunch, students and educators came together and planned ways to bring what they’ve learned back to their school communities.
“At our Youth Conference, we give students and educators resources to become change agents in their schools,” says Lisa Friedlander, one of ADL Philadelphia’s Education Directors. “We’re proud to have strong working relationships with all our conference attendees and their schools. We look forward to following up and seeing the positive changes they’re able to make.”
About Dr. Jill Walsh
Dr. Jill Walsh is a sociology professor at Boston University. She is also the founder of Digital Aged, a consulting group that educates students, families, and educational institutions about positive technology use. Dr. Walsh earned a PhD in Sociology from Boston University, a Master’s in Public Policy from Brown University and a B.A. from Harvard University. Before going to graduate school, she taught 9th-12th grades at an independent school in the Boston area. Her book Adolescents and their Social Media Narratives: A Digital Coming of Age was published in 2017, and she publishes academic research on youth development and emerging media. According to Dr. Walsh, her research “is rooted in the idea that tween/teen voices should be more dominant in how we frame and judge their mediated lives.”
ADL is the world’s leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of bigotry, its timeless mission is to secure justice and fair treatment to all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of hate with the same vigor and passion. A global leader in exposing extremism, delivering anti-bias education and fighting hate online, ADL is the first call when acts of bigotry occur. ADL’s ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate. More at www.adl.org.