Faced with concerning youth mental health data, New Hampshire has the chance to redirect funds from a legal settlement towards building inclusive, accessible spaces that foster belonging and resilience among children and teenagers.
New Hampshire is being handed an unusual chance to turn the fallout from its case against Meta into something constructive for children and teenagers. Rather than treating the settlement as a one-off windfall, advocates say the state should use it to widen access to the kinds of relationships, activities and support systems that help young people feel rooted in their communities.
That argument is reinforced by the latest state youth data. The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said the 2025 Youth Risk Behaviour Survey found that 82.6% of high school students used social media several times a day and 75.1% spent three or more hours daily on recreational screen time outside schoolwork. At the same time, 34.2% reported persistent sadness or hopelessness and 15.9% said they had seriously considered suicide in the previous year. Separate reporting on the survey noted that those mental health figures have improved since the pandemic, but remain a concern, especially for girls and young women.
The central point made by the New Hampshire Bulletin piece is that reducing screen time is not enough on its own. Young people, it argues, need something to replace passive scrolling: sports, the arts, outdoor learning, clubs, mentoring and other places where they can belong. In conversations with students involved in Project Promise’s Youth in Government, the response was not a call for complex new systems but for practical opportunities to gather, take part and build friendships in person.
That emphasis on belonging is echoed by youth-serving organisations across the state. Tricia Brannen of YouthWell New Hampshire said that feeling seen and supported is a powerful protective factor for mental health. The survey data appears to support that broader view: the Department of Health and Human Services said about 74% of students reported having at least one teacher or other adult at school they could talk to about a problem, while more than 85% said they would feel comfortable asking an adult other than a parent for help with an important life question.
Even so, access remains uneven. Leigh Ann Reynolds of New Hampshire Environmental Educators said barriers such as transportation, cost, time, geography and awareness can make promising programmes effectively unreachable, particularly in rural areas. Stacy Neville of the Granite YMCA added that staffing shortages can limit how many children and teenagers organisations are able to serve, even when the facilities are there. Those constraints matter because a programme that exists on paper is not the same as one a family can actually use.
That is why the coalition behind Fund IRL NH wants settlement proceeds directed towards a wider youth infrastructure, not just a handful of short-term grants. Its supporters argue the money should strengthen after-school and summer programmes, recreation, outdoor experiences, arts, mentoring, libraries, youth leadership initiatives and mental and behavioural health support. They also want families and young people involved in deciding where the money goes, with particular attention paid to rural communities and transparency about results.
The larger choice facing New Hampshire is whether to treat the litigation as an endpoint or a beginning. The Bulletin’s authors make the case that if the state is serious about accountability, it should invest in the settings that help children thrive when they are offline: trusted adults, accessible spaces and opportunities that make it easier to log off without feeling cut off.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
