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GenZ kids were guinea pigs for living online — here’s how predators, self-harming ‘sad girls’ and devices in classrooms hurt us

Big Tech is in the hot seat, with Mark Zuckerberg forced to testify last week about the dangers of Instagram in a landmark lawsuit brought by a young California woman, known only as KGM, who says growing up on social media ruined her childhood.

KGM’s story is terrible: Claims of sextortion, self-harm and suicidal ideation. Outside the courthouse are even more tragic stories, as families hold vigils for children who they claim died as a result of being online.

But parents should know this: Even if your child doesn’t end up in a hospital — or worse — it doesn’t mean they haven’t been hurt by social media.

Childhood has been completely rewritten by Big Tech behemoths who simply don’t have children’s best interest in mind.

I first signed up for Facebook at age 10, Instagram at 11, and Tumblr around 12 — all standard for Gen Z.

At first, Instagram was just a place to see what my friends were doing and post pictures of my dogs. But it quickly became a portal to a world I wasn’t adequately prepared for.

By the time I was 12, strange men, often from other countries, were commenting on innocent photos of me with friends at school dances or at the beach and sending me lewd messages. Though I learned to ignore them, it made me feel overwhelmed and too aware of my own sexuality at too young an age.

Meanwhile, female influencers were inadvertently “teaching” me how I should look.

Because of Instagram, I came to believe that the Photoshopped and........

© New York Post