Parents are coming for the social media firms | USAEMALL.com

Hello from New York.

If you are a parent you are probably on a few group chats. And in between chatter about school fundraisers and the weather, one major topic persists: How much screen time is too much for kids?

Parents are immensely concerned about their children’s exposure to screens and social media. So much so that it’s becoming an emerging risk for the giant tech companies from Alphabet to TikTok.

This issue brings us to today’s first item: an interview with Jonathan Haidt, one of the foremost researchers on social media addiction. He’s forging ahead with others to wage a “pro-human” campaign that’s pushing for phone bans in schools around the world.

Also today, Kaori explores whether a different approach to forest management could boost investor returns along with the environment. — Patrick Temple-West

Humans rage against the machine as social media takes over kids’ lives

Children’s obsession with their phones has become one of the biggest concerns for parents around the world.

Australia, for example, has passed a law banning access to social media for kids under 16, which is scheduled to go into effect in December.

Efforts like these to slow social media’s untrammelled intrusion into kids’ lives are spreading quickly — in no small part thanks to author and academic Jonathan Haidt. His 2024 book The Anxious Generation became a best-seller, with its arguments for phone-free schools and no social media for children under 16.

“All over the world parents are fed up,” Haidt told me last week. “Family life all around the world has turned into a battle over screen time. And everyone hates it. And they are coming for the companies.”

I interviewed Haidt at an immersive art event in New York last week that was organised by Life Calling, an awareness campaign that aims to reassert people’s control over artificial intelligence. The event posed the question: “What does it mean to preserve your humanity in the digital age?”

Life Calling’s founder John Mack emphasised at the event that his effort isn’t anti-technology. “I am very pro-tech. I am just human first.” He made a comparison to Al Gore as a figurehead who helped organise disparate climate groups in the fight against global warming. Without Gore, “global awareness wasn’t built yet”, said Mack, son of the former Morgan Stanley chief executive John Mack. “We are building awareness for the platform organisations that are solving this.”

And the pressure on social media companies is broadening. Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube, is facing a shareholder resolution calling for more information about how it collects online data from children. Apple and Microsoft faced scrutiny over their AI policies at their annual shareholder meetings in February and December, respectively.

“The book has turned into a movement and our goal in the movement is to roll back a phone-based childhood by the end of 2027,” Haidt told me. “We think we can do it in three years.” (Patrick Temple-West)

The case for a forest investment rethink

Forestry funds are a long-standing feature of the sustainable investment landscape, with their managers typically aiming to generate a return through the sale of wood products while preserving the health of the ecosystems they invest in. But is it time for a change of approach?

A new white paper by SLM Partners, an asset management firm focusing on sustainable agriculture and forestry, is making the case for continuous cover forestry (CCF) — a management method that maintains permanent forest cover while relying on a forest’s natural growth cycle.

In contrast, the vast majority of European forests are currently managed rotationally, which means entire sections of forests are cut down. Owners then need to start anew by planting seedlings — a costly part of the cycle.

SLM’s study found that the CCF method allows for 20 per cent higher levels of carbon sequestering as well as better biodiversity outcomes compared with traditional clear-fell management.

While clear-felling allows for an early and large cash flow for investors, this ends up “destroying the capital value”, Paul McMahon, co-founder and managing partner at SLM Partners and one of the authors of the white paper, told me.

By contrast, CCF allows for the investor to keep growing their asset. The forests go through a regular thinning process whereby poorer-quality trees are harvested and sold to make room for higher-quality trees to grow to maturity. The higher-quality trees can then be sold at their peak price and produce seeds for the next generation.

McMahon has found that, with CCF, forests are “getting more diversity of species, diversity of age, more dead wood and more natural habitats”.

For a forest owner or investor aiming to maximise their returns, “continuous cover forestry wins in the internal rate of return calculus”, he added. A CCF fund “can get the biggest bang for your buck in terms of carbon and biodiversity . . . as well as a good financial return”, he argued.

Regular harvesting also helps to reduce exposure to timber price fluctuations, while eliminating the costly replanting process by allowing nature to take its course. “You get steady cash flows that can yield a higher return” in the long run, McMahon said. 

SLM Partners’ first continuous cover forestry fund, the SLM Silva Fund, which targeted Irish forests, has outperformed, yielding double-digit returns, according to McMahon. The European Investment Bank as well as European insurance companies, pension funds and family offices were among the main investors.

The asset manager aims to launch a second fund of €200mn in 2025 that will target a return in the high single digits and expand beyond Ireland to the UK and other countries in Europe. They are also looking at capitalising on the forest’s carbon and biodiversity benefits.

However, as is often the case with nature, it’s not one size fits all. Paddy Purser, co-owner of Irish forestry company Purser Tarleton Russell, points out that some forests are not suitable for CCF management, especially those that are too far along in the traditional rotation. But “there’s nothing wrong with the site . . . we [can] redesign them as continuous cover forests and replant them”, he said.

Whether investors and forest owners will warm to this forestry management style remains to be seen. “The change in the forestry model requires a cultural change,” Purser said. From sawmillers to purchasers of timber, “everyone’s a little bit addicted to the formulaic and easy approach to producing timber”. (Kaori Yoshida, Nikkei)

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