May 29—Emma Lembke said she was 12 years old when she joined Instagram.

For the first few months, she said it was phenomenal and felt like the world was at her fingertips. But over time, the device began “pulling me in” as she began receiving “inappropriate content.”

Lembke said her mother had no idea what she was consuming on social media.

“You could not have protected me,” Lembke said she told her mom.

A few years later, as a senior in high school, Lembke founded LOG OFF, a youth movement dedicated to uplifting and empowering youth to tackle the complexities of social media and its impact on their privacy, safety and mental health.

On Wednesday evening, Lembke, along with Design It For Us Co-Chairman — and advocate for safer social media for teens — Zamaan Qureshi and New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez spoke about the online dangers facing young people during a virtual town hall hosted by NBC News journalist Kate Snow.

One of the dangers mentioned during the town hall was sexual predators.

Earlier this month, the New Mexico Department of Justice announced it arrested three suspected online child predators following a monthslong operation of child predators operating through Meta Platforms Inc.

The incident is an example, Torrez said on Wednesday, “of the dangers people need to be aware of.”

According to court documents, the complaint alleges that Meta told the public that its social media platforms are “safe and good for children when they knowingly expose children to the dangers of sexual exploitation and mental health harm.”

Torrez said the companies have not demonstrated they are capable of providing the “safety and security all of us expect from a product that is readily available, not just to adults but to children.”

The attorney general is shining a “light on the fact that these conversations need to be had” about what is going on, Lembke said.

“Open and honest dialogue is important,” she said, adding that it is important for parents not to be judgmental during those conversations because many youth could be “embarrassed by negative experiences.”

“There needs to be room and space for families to have open and honest conversations.” Qureshi said. “But the onus is on the companies to have safer platforms. They haven’t been able to do that. Some regulation is needed in order to make that happen.”

‘Genie is out of the bottle’

Snow asked the panel whether people should go “cold turkey” and get off social media.

“I think we’re a realistic generation,” Lembke said. “We understand that the genie is out of the bottle. We’re not going to go back to the time where social media doesn’t exist in some capacity.

“So, I don’t think it is realistic to demand that everybody just quits cold turkey.”

Lembke said that while social media won’t go away, one reason she created LOG OFF “was to say, ‘let’s all log off, step back and reflect on our usage'” and ask how people can maximize the benefits of the platforms while “mitigating its harms.”

“The answer is, it is very difficult. It requires a lot of conscious decisions.”

Torrez said people like Lembke and Quershi give him hope for the future.

“I think young people get it, frankly, in a lot of ways that others don’t,” he said.