In an interview with The Record, FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya says the agency plans on hiring in-house child psychologists to help it evaluate the mental effects of social media, look into the impact of dark patterns, and monitor trends.
If I have an economic question I’ve got 80 Ph.D. economists I can ask. If someone is making an allegation about mental health harms, I have no full-time staff who are experts in the psychology of it... I just think that we can send a strong signal to other law enforcement agencies in the U.S. by saying we need to have these folks in-house such that it’s a standing capacity.
Bedoya says the FTC plans to hire child psychologists by the fall of 2024 “if not significantly sooner.”











