<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/07/facebook-common-sense-med...> [] A gathering of Silicon Valley alumni and whistleblowers and Washington lobbyists in the US capital heard warnings of potential links between tech addiction and sleep disruption, poor academic performance, anxiety, depression, obesity, social isolation and suicide. Conference organiser James Steyer, chief executive and founder of Common Sense Media, a not-for-profit promoting safe technology and media for children, criticised giants such as Facebook, Google and Twitter. “Talk is cheap. Show me the money. Period.” Former Facebook and Google workers launch campaign to fight tech addiction Read more There were pleas for Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder and chief executive, and Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer, to apply values they advocate for their own families. Steyer added: “Mark and Sheryl at Facebook are good people. They are parents too. They have to think about their own kids when making a big picture decision there.” Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook, echoed this sentiment: “What I’d like [Sheryl Sandberg] to do is to bring the same values she has at home into the office. Remember that you have to have empathy. If you view your users as fuel stock for your profits you’re not going to make the world a better place.” The message to Mark Zuckerberg was ‘think about your own kids’. The message to Mark Zuckerberg was ‘think about your own kids’. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images McNamee is among a group of former tech employees behind the Center for Humane Technology, committed to “reversing the digital attention crisis and realigning technology with humanity’s best interests”, raising alarms about the effects of smartphones and social networks on people’s emotional and intellectual development. It has received $7m in funding from Common Sense Media for a lobbying campaign to combat tech addiction, reminiscent of past anti-smoking drives, as well as adverts targeting 55,000 schools in the US. As a backlash against Silicon Valley gathers momentum, Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff, speaking in Davos last month, called for Facebook to be regulated like a cigarette company because of the addictive and harmful properties of social media. McNamee finds this a useful metaphor. []