SAVE CEO Calls for National Strategy for Suicide Prevention Rewrite to Confront Social Media and AI Harms

SAVE CEO Mische Calls for the National Strategy to explicitly address role of social media platforms and AI technologies in worsening youth suicide risk

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, UNITED STATES, November 5, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP) must be urgently amended to address the escalating harms of social media and artificial intelligence on young people, according to Erich Mische, CEO of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE), in a newly published commentary in Tech Policy Press.

Mische, who signed the NSSP in 2024 in his role as CEO of SAVE and as a member of the National Council for Suicide Prevention, writes that he regrets doing so not because of the nation doesn't need a national strategy, but because the strategy does not reflect the digital reality in which young people are growing up today.

“The United States is racing to roll out machines that don’t care if our kids live or die, but our strategy to combat the nation’s suicide crisis doesn’t adequately reflect it,” Mische writes. “Social media and AI are not side issues. They are at the center of the storm.”

The commentary highlights that while research consistently links heavy social media use to increased rates of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and suicide risk among youth, AI-driven chatbots and content systems are now entering that same emotional space with even greater power and far less accountability.

“To be clear, my criticism is not directed at the individuals or organizations who led the effort to create the plan, but rather at the limits of the process itself and with my own failure to challenge those limits when I had the chance. The people who worked on the strategy are dedicated professionals deeply committed to saving lives. My concern is that the strategy itself already feels outdated.”

Mische argues that this moment demands federal leadership.

“Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has the opportunity to lead this effort. With a new surgeon general poised for confirmation, he can direct federal health agencies to reopen and strengthen the strategy so it explicitly addresses how social media and artificial intelligence are contributing to rising rates of suicidal thoughts, behaviors and deaths among young people.”

“This is not simply a matter of mental health; it is a matter of suicide prevention on a national scale.”

Mische outlines what a modernized NSSP should include:

* Treat social media and AI as core, not peripheral, drivers of youth suicide risk;

* Establish measurable goals for digital safety research, platform accountability, and public education;

* Foster national coordination across public health, technology, education, and child development sectors;

* Commit to annual reviews and updates, rather than waiting another decade to adapt to a rapidly changing world; and

* Hold Big Tech accountable for the safety and well-being of the children and families their products reach.

“If we are serious about saving lives, we cannot treat this as something to revisit ten years from now. The threat is not emerging - it is already here.”

Read the full commentary:
https://www.techpolicy.press/the-us-needs-a-new-suicide-prevention-plan-that-tackles-social-media-and-ai/

Erich Mische
SAVE - Suicide Awareness Voices of Education
+1 651-600-1188
email us here

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