Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation 3/23/25

Mindy & Mikaela speak with Tony Coder from the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome back.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
As we get into hour two of the What Matters Show,
Mikayla's here in the studio and Mindy is on the
road coming back from Michigan State in a great ball game.
Great last few days, actually, Mindy, except for the weather.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
It looked like, oh it was freezing. I'm like, this
isn't softball weather, it's football weather. And then the score
ended up being more like a football game anyway. I
didn't know if you heard Randy, if you caught him
while we were you were coming to us, He's like
getting ready to stop at another rest He's like, I
love these rest stops. Oh goodness for these Restopska, Randy.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
I love a good rest stop too. I mean, and
Ohio has some amazing ones. We've done some really great
reconstruction on some websites lately. So I'm with Randy on that.
Idiots five oh six on a Sunday afternoon, and we
are gonna have a conversation about something that's really important
to parents. And I think even social media look different

(00:59):
to your kids then it looks to my kids, Mindy.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
You know, I say to myself all the time, and
I say it with a lot of my friends that
I grew up with. Can you imagine how different our
lives would be if we grew up with cell phones,
if we grew up with social media? And then all
of us are always like, I'm so glad we didn't.
I'm so glad that we didn't. And I do worry.
My kids are a lot older than yours, but it

(01:25):
is a constant worry with what they're going to see,
what they're going to be exposed to, and how they're
going to get treated on social media.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, and we're so fortunate to hear about something new
that is happening for kids and parents, a campaign that's
going on. Executive director of the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation
Tony Coder is joining us on the line to tell
us a little bit of about it this afternoon, this evening, Tony,
welcome to What Matters. Good to have you today.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Hey, thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
So there's this campaign that we learned a little bit
about in the last few days called kids I think,
keep It Digitally Safe campaign, and you know a bit
about it. So what do we need to know as families,
as parents, and as you know, communities.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
So, yeah, we are really excited about this campaign, and
it's going on nationally. It's not just an Ohio base,
it's all over the place, across the nation. And we
know that there was a Suite and Surgeon General report
done a few years ago showing the impacts the negative
impacts of social media on youth depression, youth anxiety, and

(02:39):
we're hoping that we can bring some awareness while also
making you know, quite frankly, a little bit of headway
into young people with their social media use.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
I love it, I love it so exactly, I'm sorry, mindy,
go ahead, what were you going to say?

Speaker 1 (02:59):
No, no, no, go ahead?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
So exactly how is it hoping to solve some of
the problems that we're seeing? How does it all work, Tony?

Speaker 3 (03:08):
So you know, right now, we know that kids who
have who spend three hours or more time a day
on social media have double the amount of mental health
issues like anxiety depression, and on average kids spend three
point five hours per day, so they're already you know,

(03:30):
going over what is really safe. So what we want
to do is make sure that just a lot like
we do with movies and you know, those types of things,
that we have a label system that are able to
show that you know, be careful about self harm. You know,
how can we raise awareness around depression, anxiety, you know

(03:53):
some positive things that you can be doing outside of
social media. So it really it's an exciting time and
we want all this to be designed by kids, by
young people, so that they can you know, I'm much
older than a kid, so you know, kid in play
was cool back in my day, and you know that's

(04:14):
not the case anymore. So you know, we're really excited
about getting the kids involved in this, in this problem,
in this solution.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
I actually think that is an outstanding idea because if
you involve kids with the planning and organizing of it,
it's not going to feel like it's mandated against them,
because I think that's one of the problems that so
many people have, and so many families have. Kids feel
like this is their freedom, This is their right to
watch what they want. They don't want to be controlled.

(04:44):
But that's not the real world. You're still a kid,
they are still the parents. They have the right to
monitor what you're watching, what you're seeing, what you're taking
part in. And if you let the kids kind of
open the door of organizing this, I think that could
really go a long way, because is there a gray
area as far as control goes and giving the freedom.

(05:06):
You want your kids to have the freedom to watch
what they want, but you've got to have some type
of control.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, And what's really cool about it is, you know,
we had taken ten groups of young people last year
and asked them what were the things that really matter
to them? What were things that really were concerning And
we honestly expected things like bullying and maybe body image
issues and some of those types of things, but number

(05:34):
one was social media. They identified that social media was
a problem in their lives and they wanted to address it.
So really that's a lot of how we have come
to this place as well. We actually took the lead
from the kids and designing you know, what they think
is a big problem in their generation.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
So how does this campaign tie into broader legislative efforts
that are going on because, Tony, if anything with the
label system, there's a lot that has to happen to
make that happen. How does it all come together and
how do you guys push forward to try to get
something done.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
So, you know, congressionally, we're trying to get you know,
work with campaigns like the Kids Online Safety Act to
Stop the Scroll Act. You know, we were really happy
that Governor de Wine signed Braden's Law last year, which
was you know, was named for a young man who

(06:31):
was on the internet and had been talking with someone,
someone he thought was a you know, a female, and
you know, there were some some things exchanged, and you know,
it came out that this person was extorting Braden and
from what I understand, you know, he was he he

(06:53):
did die by suicide. So, you know, we want to
make sure that we have these types of this type
of legislation. We don't want to you know that we
don't want to man I guess mandate that these things.
We want to make it something that we can work
with the social media platforms on you know, whether it's

(07:14):
Meta or x or you know, Instagram or wherever. So,
you know, we really think it's important though that we
all have an understanding come from the same place that
you know, we don't want to ban social media, but
we want to just make it safer and perhaps even
provide some opportunities for safer messaging.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Realistically, do you really think you can make a difference
in all these families live?

Speaker 3 (07:42):
You know, if we can get just the conversation started.
And you know, I go to a lot of funerals
around the state of Ohio of folks who have died
by suicide. You know, some use suicides as well, and
there's not one family that said to me, you've done
too much. So if we can save one life, if

(08:03):
we can, you know, if I can go to one
less funeral because of the actions that you know, maybe
a kid sees a label, maybe there's a nine to
eight eight label if they're thinking self harm or suicide.
You know, that's what this is all about. And if
nothing else, maybe it will bring up some conversations between
the parents and the kids that that that might be helpful.

(08:27):
So you know that that's what we're hoping for. Well
this solve everything, No, But can it be a tool
in the toolbox? We believe absolutely, Tony.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
How it sounds great? How can people participate? What kind
of submissions are accepted for this? Like, how does it
all work together? And incentives to I understand there are
a few.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, so you can go to keep it digitally safe,
Keep it digitallysafe dot org. That's a long title. But
with that, you know, young people can submit artwork or
slogans or videos or you know other creative works that
promote the need for warning labels on social media. And

(09:08):
you know what's exciting is that money has been raised
and you know, winning submissions will receive a five thousand
dollars scholarships thatcond place three thousand and third place two thousand,
So there's even some you know a little bit of
money behind this as well. We know there's a lot
of creativity and you know, folks are a lot more creative
than I am, or folks that you know, adults approximation,

(09:31):
and we'd love their help in getting this word out.
And you know, if you can make a little bit
of you know, cash for a scholarship, you know that
that helps as well.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
I am so thankful that you're doing this, and I
have older kids. I can only imagine the families who
are listening right now that are just like saying thank you,
thank you for trying to make a difference before. Yes,
it's already too late for different families who have lost
loved ones to suicide, but it's not too late for
others who are listening and to try to make a
difference in their lives.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah, and thank you for that. Mandy, because it is
you know, the families that have lost all they want
to do now is save other kids. So a lot
of them take that, you know, that that loss and
that passion they have, and they just want to see
that no other family has to go what they've been through.
So you know, this is exactly not only something that

(10:28):
can help families who you know, have have kids right
now who are teenagers, but it also, in a strange way,
helps those families who have actually lost people to suicide. Oh.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
Absolutely, Then those deaths weren't in vain and you're taking
a horrible situation and turning into a positive. Yeah, it's
a win win situation. It really is.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Again, Tony, is it keep it digitallysafe? Dot com? Is
that right?

Speaker 3 (10:56):
Dot org? Dot org? This is the least safe dot
org ogi.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, all right, Well, thank you for taking the time
to talk through it with us. I hope this catches on.
I hope this label system idea. You know, it's so
hard to get consensus on things sometimes, but I think
if anything you could get consensus on right now, it's
that our kids are being damaged by this, and I
really hope we can do something. I know the lobby

(11:20):
is strong for some of these social media companies in Washington,
but I mean everybody has to admit we have a
real significant problem. And I hope us coming together can
beat anything that would try to overcome us trying to
make a difference for our kids.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Absolutely, And I know, you know, talking to some of
the social media platform representatives, you know, no one wants
to see someone die by suicide. No one wants to
see you know, a child negatively impacted by mental health.
So you know there is good intention on all sides,
and we just have to, you know, make sure we
get this thing over the finish line and can save

(11:57):
as many kids as possible.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Well, take someone to lead the charge, so good work
on that. Please keep Mikayla and I and all of
our listeners updated on the progress of this.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
Absolutely we will, and I thank you again so much
for having me on this afternoon and being able to
share this.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Of course, we were so glad to be able to
hear about it and get you on air. Thank you, Tony,
thank you. This is what matters. On six' TEN wtva