Documentary

Can't Look Away: The Case Against Social Media

Apr 2025 🇺🇸 Bloomberg Originals / DCTV

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Can't Look Away: The Case Against Social Media is a 2025 documentary co-directed by Matthew O'Neill and Perri Peltz, based on Bloomberg News reporting by Olivia Carville. Produced by DCTV for Bloomberg Originals, the film follows the Social Media Victims Law Center, a legal team representing thousands of families who say their children were harmed after encountering algorithm-driven content on platforms including Snapchat, Meta, and YouTube. Cases followed in the film include teenagers whose accounts are linked to suicide, sextortion, and fatal counterfeit-pill overdoses arranged through in-app messaging. The filmmakers describe recommendation systems as prioritizing engagement over child safety and frame the pattern as a public-health concern rather than proof that any single feature caused any individual outcome. The film does not diagnose or treat any condition; it documents litigation and family accounts, and won a Silver Baton at the 2026 duPont-Columbia Awards for its reporting.

~4,000 families represented

The Social Media Victims Law Center, the firm the film follows, says it represents roughly 4,000 families pursuing claims that social media platform design contributed to harm their children experienced.

Silver Baton, 2026 duPont-Columbia Awards

Judges cited the film as 'a carefully researched documentary' following a legal team's case against Snapchat, Meta, and YouTube over the impact of their platforms on teenagers and their families.

75-minute film, wide release April 2025

Released April 4, 2025 on the Jolt streaming platform and in a DCTV theatrical run at Firehouse Cinema, New York; later carried on Bloomberg Media platforms starting July 2025.

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CITATION

O'Neill, Matthew, and Perri Peltz, directors. Can't Look Away: The Case Against Social Media. Bloomberg Originals / DCTV, based on reporting by Olivia Carville, 2025. https://www.bloombergmedia.com/press/bloomberg-news-announces-the-launch-of-cant-look-away-the-case-against-social-media-a-documentary-exposing-extreme-harms-to-young-users-linked-to-social-media/

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