Introducing Left to Their Own Devices

We handed kids the most powerful technology in history. Then we walked away. This is what happened next.

When she was 12 years old, Ava Smithing spiraled down a social media rabbit hole that nearly cost her life. A decade later, she discovered she wasn’t alone: Big Tech had rewritten childhood and adolescence for her entire generation. Armed with questions and a year to find answers, Ava embarked on a cross-continent investigation into a hidden digital world. She met teens in 12-step programs for social media addiction, young girls wrestling with compulsive porn use, and boys who had been blackmailed by international cybercriminals.

This isn’t a self-help guide to digital wellness. It’s a survival story from the front lines of 21st century childhood: where young people are re-writing the playbook for what it means to be human in a hyperconnected world.

Subscribers to the Toronto Star will be able to access episodes early.