Dr. Phil says social media creates chaos by targeting children and creating a self-hatred culture

Dr. Phillip McGraw, well-known as Dr. Phil, said on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's podcast "Verdict" that social media companies are creating chaos by targeting children and causing them to suffer mental health problems. 

“And if you want to create chaos in a society, where do you start? You attack the children,” McGraw said. "If you get them to hate themselves, be questioned about who they are, what they are, what’s that going to do to the next generation and the next generation? And right now, we have the highest levels of anxiety, depression and loneliness among our young people.”

He said that social media companies specifically target children, knowing that the content they click on will breed "anxiety, depression, loneliness, confusion, self-hatred.”

McGraw said that this targeting by social media companies goes after the family unit and it's worse than ever before. 

“One of the things I talk about is the fact that our children aren’t just being exposed, they’re being targeted,” he said. “And when I say targeted, I wrote a book in 2004 called ‘Family First.’ And at that time, I said the family in America is under attack, that families in America are under attack, the family unit, the family values, everything that families stand for in America are under attack. This was 20 years ago. Let me tell you, it is so much worse now than it was then.”

“And when I say they’re under attack, one of the ways is what’s happening on the internet, what’s happening on the social media platforms,” Dr. Phil added.

Some politicians have come out against social media companies, arguing that they are harmful to children and should be sued. 

"We're going to be suing social media companies for the harm and damage that they're causing our young people," Utah GOP Gov. Spencer Cox said earlier this year.  

"There's not just a correlation between social media use and an increase in suicide, anxiety, depression, self-harm. There is a causal link there," he added.