We demand a national institution dedicated to protecting young people from addictive digital technology.

Nearly 30 years ago, we faced another industry whose products were addictive and harming a generation of young people. The tobacco settlement gave us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do more than hold an industry accountable. We learned an important lesson: accountability for past harm is only half the job. You also have to prevent the next generation from suffering the same fate. We invested a portion of those resources in a national, independent effort dedicated to doing just that. It worked.

Today, we have another once-in-a-generation opportunity. States should come together and pool a meaningful portion of these resources to build a national, independent effort with the scale, expertise and staying power to protect young people from harmful and addictive patterns of social media use and help those already struggling to overcome them. By acting together, states can turn individual settlements into a national force for prevention, education and behavior change.

What impresses me about Josh Jacobs and the young people behind the Attention Initiative is that they aren’t simply demanding action. They’ve done their homework, looked at what worked before and put forward a thoughtful, strategic solution for how we can make a lasting difference. We should listen to them.

The lesson from tobacco is simple: settlements come and go, but when you invest wisely in prevention, education and behavior change, you can change the trajectory of a generation.

Young people deserve more than warnings about the things that can harm them. They deserve the facts, tools and support to make informed choices, avoid addiction in the first place and overcome it when they need help.

We know behavior can change at scale. For more than 25 years, Truth Initiative has combined science, education, culture and youth engagement to change attitudes and behaviors around tobacco and nicotine, helping drive youth smoking from 23% to under 2% and youth e-cigarette use to its lowest level in a decade, while helping millions on their journey to quit.

The challenge before us is different, but the opportunity is familiar: put young people at the center, give them the facts, tools and support they need, and apply the best of behavioral science and public health to empower healthier choices and help break the cycle of addiction. We have seen what is possible when young people are informed, engaged and empowered, and we have an opportunity to put that experience to work for a new generation.