Social Media

The social media industry is constantly changing. Technology, consumer preferences, and other industry developments will make today’s Internet and social media sites almost unrecognizable in the future. For example, social media sites are increasingly becoming powerful tools for retailers. And the growth of mobile computing will change the way content is prepared and viewed and how advertisers reach potential customers. Here are some of the major trends in the industry.

More People Getting News on Social Media

Americans have traditionally obtained their news from broadcast outlets, newspapers, and magazines, but that has changed in recent years. In 2023, 58 percent of U.S. adults said they preferred to get news online, whether through social media, Web sites, or apps, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center (PRC). This is an increase of 24 percent from 2018. (Television was cited by 27 percent of respondents, a decrease of 8 percent since 2020.) Only 5 percent of respondents cited print newspapers as their preferred method of receiving the news. In 2023, 50 percent of U.S. adults surveyed by the PRC obtained their news from social media. Thirty percent of respondents said they regularly obtained news from Facebook. YouTube (26 percent), Instagram (16 percent), TikTok (14 percent), and X (12 percent) were other popular news sources.

Look for more people to access news via social media, although there is an ongoing debate about the quality of news that appears on such sites.

Generative AI and Social Media

Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, DALL-E) is a form of machine learning algorithms that can be used in a variety of ways, such as:

• creating new content (including text, simulations, videos, images, audio, and computer code); this new content can be used for positive purposes or for negative and/or illegal ones (see the next section for more information)
• helping developers write code and identify errors more efficiently
• more quickly identifying the solutions to coding, cybersecurity, or other problems
• analyzing and organizing vast amounts of data and other information
• serving as a conversational assistant and chatbots on social media platforms and in customer service settings

A 2023 report by Deloitte found that 74 percent of companies were testing generative AI technologies and 65 percent were already using them internally. The report, State of Ethics and Trust in Technology, can be accessed at https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/us-tte-annual-report-2023-12-8.pdf.

Demand is growing rapidly for IT professionals with artificial intelligence expertise (especially in generative AI). Information technology managers are also increasing salary offers to those with AI skills in order to attract top talent. Forty-six percent of managers who were surveyed for its 2024 Salary Guide said that they would increase salary offers for those with artificial intelligence expertise.

Generative AI is already in use in many industries, but it’s important to understand that using LLMs creates several serious risks. “They can perpetuate harmful bias by deploying negative stereotypes or minimizing minority viewpoints, spread misinformation by repeating falsehoods or making up facts and citations, violate privacy by using data without people’s consent, cause security breaches if they are used to generate phishing e-mails or other cyberattacks, and harm the environment because of the significant computational resources required to train and run these tools,” according to the Harvard Business Review.

Many social media and tech companies are developing AI usage guidelines to address ethical and other concerns about the utilization of this technology. For example, LinkedIn has published the following Responsible AI Principles that its employees follow in their work:

Advance Economic Opportunity: People are at the center of what we do. AI is a tool to further our vision, empowering our members and augmenting their success and productivity.

Uphold Trust: Our commitments to privacy, security, and safety guide our use of AI. We take meaningful steps to reduce the potential risks of AI.

Promote Fairness and Inclusion: We work to ensure that our use of AI benefits all members fairly, without causing or amplifying unfair bias.

Provide Transparency: Understanding of AI starts with transparency. We seek to explain in clear and simple ways how our use of AI impacts people.

Embrace Accountability: We deploy robust AI governance, including assessing and addressing potential harms and fitness for purpose, and ensuring human oversight and accountability. We are committed to learning from, and helping, others as AI best practices, norms, and laws evolve.

“Fake News,” Deepfakes, and Shallowfakes

Some Web sites have always had a “supermarket tabloid”–quality to them. They’re filled with outlandish and untrue claims about public figures, the government, companies, and historical events, among numerous other topics. Most people laugh off “fake news” sites and social media posts as a harmless collection of lies and innuendos, but the 2016 presidential election demonstrated the pernicious nature of this type of content. Many media analysts and journalists questioned if or how such social media content, including on Facebook, might have influenced voters and the election results.

Facebook uses an algorithm that emphasizes user “engagement,” meaning that an article filled with inaccuracies posted by a blogger—and re-posted by a large number of like-minded individuals—can compete for engagement with a well-researched, factually correct article from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or other respected news outlets.

Another emerging issue is the increasing use of deepfakes—videos, photos, audio, and even fake people (such as fake journalists affiliated with fake organizations) that are created by using a form of artificial intelligence called machine learning in order to create lies about public figures and otherwise distort reality. The AI technology firm DeepMedia estimates that 500,000 video and voice deepfakes were shared on social media sites globally in 2023. The majority of deepfakes are pornographic in nature. Another type of deceptive video is called a shallowfake, in which simple editing tools are used to distort what actually happened in a video to make the subject look bad. For example, a shallowfake creator slowed down a speech by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, to make her look drunk or senile. Facebook banned the use of deepfakes, but has not banned the use of shallowfakes. Deepfakes and shallowfakes will be increasingly used to distort reality and cause mischief on the Internet. “The more insidious impact of deepfakes, along with other synthetic media and fake news, is to create a zero-trust society, where people cannot, or no longer bother to, distinguish truth from falsehood,” according to TheGuardian.com. “And when trust is eroded, it is easier to raise doubts about specific events.” Visit https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/deepfakes-explained to learn more about deepfakes.

With more U.S. adults using social media to get news, it is clear that social media companies need to take substantial steps to reduce the spread of fake news amongst their users. Both Facebook and Google no longer allow fake news sites to use their ad-selling services. Google also adjusted its algorithms to reduce search results that sent readers to fake news sites (such as those that provided incorrect vote counts after the presidential election).

“If social sites hope to maintain their credibility as a place for users to find news, the responsibility lies with them to ensure that there is some oversight,” according to Social Times. “While removing access to ad services is one way to reduce exposure, fake and false news will still find its way into user feeds as a result of organic user engagement.”

The Rise of Influencers

Social media influencers are frequent users of social media who have established credibility in a certain industry (fashion, restaurants, information technology, etc.) or in an area of expertise (professional athletics, acting music, modeling, travel, makeup, gardening, etc.). They work to build relationships with companies in which they promote the businesses’ products or services in exchange for gifts or money. Macro-influencers are celebrities such as Selena Gomez, Lionel Messi, Kylie Jenner, or Cristiano Ronaldo, who receive large amounts of money from companies to promote their products. Eighty percent of major brands report that they are dedicating a portion of their marketing budgets to working with influencers, according to Influencer Marketing Hub. Current hot areas include beauty and fitness, but trends change constantly. Because it’s too costly for most businesses to hire macro-influencers, many are working with micro-influencers, those who have a smaller number of followers, but who still have name recognition in their industry or who have expertise in a certain area. It’s estimated that 65 to 75 percent of Gen Z and Millennials follow influencers on social media. Fifty-seven percent of Gen Zers who were surveyed by Morning Consult (a technology and media company) in 2023 said they would become an influencer if given the opportunity. Their top reasons for wanting to become influencers were “money, flexibility, and fun.” In the future, look for more companies and other organizations to seek out influencers to help promote their products and services.

Social Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and the Metaverse

Augmented reality is a view of the real, physical world that is supplemented by computer-created sound, graphics, video, or GPS data. The Pokémon Go craze of 2016 is one example of the use of augmented reality. Although Pokémon did not have a direct social media connection, social media sites were abuzz with conversations about the game. Social media companies such as Snapchat (via its Lenses feature, which allows users to add real-time special effects and sounds to photographs) are increasingly integrating AR features into their sites. Companies also use augmented reality to help consumers make buying decisions. For example, IKEA offers augmented reality software to help customers gauge how its furniture would fit in their homes, and clothing retailers have apps that allow users to “try on” clothes instead of having to visit brick-and-mortar stores.

Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated version of the world we experience around us, including sights, sounds, and sensations. Participants in virtual reality activities typically wear a VR headset while interacting with game consoles or software. This technology places them, via an avatar or other mechanism, directly into the field of experience. Rudimentary virtual reality techniques were first used in videogames in the 1980s and 1990s, but they’ve become significantly more sophisticated in the last decade. Elements of virtual reality are also a large part of massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds like Second Life (but, in these settings, users are psychologically separated from the action by looking at a flat screen or, in the instance of a first-person shooter game, taken out of the virtual reality experience if they physically turn away from the game).

Facebook took a major plunge into VR in 2014 when it bought Oculus VR, the most famous virtual reality company in the world. It has begun incorporating Oculus technology into its 360 Video, allowing users to experience scenes from different angles, with a goal of creating a more captivating experience. In more recent years, it launched Horizon Worlds, a social VR world where users can create their own digital avatars and interact with other users, although it has been criticized for being buggy and not that exciting to use.

In December 2015, vTime (https://vtime.net), the first cross-reality, sociable network launched to allow users to socialize with family and friends in virtual and augmented reality. It has users in more than 190 countries. In 2020, it launched the AR product vTag, the first cross-world 3D avatar messaging app.

In 2016, Oculus launched the Oculus Social app for use with the Samsung Gear VR headset. It has since been rebranded Meta Quest and has been installed over 21 million times on iOS and Android devices, according to an estimate by Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm. The app allows users to “sit” in a virtual theater, watch a movie, and converse in real-time with fellow users. The movie-theater concept may not sound that exciting, but the possibilities of virtual reality and social media (which is known as social virtual reality) are endless. Users will be able to create avatars (that show emotion and move in a realistic manner) and talk and interact with others in a variety of past, present, and future locations—from the sandy cliffs overlooking the D-Day invasion in France during World War II, to atop the Eiffel Tower in modern-day Paris, to the cockpit of a flying car on the “air-ways” above Tokyo in 2150. Or users could choose to have a virtual chat underwater at the Great Barrier Reef, atop Mount Everest, or in the world of a favorite photograph they uploaded before the chat. The International Data Corporation (IDC), an American market research, analysis, and advisory firm, predicts that worldwide spending on AR/VR products and services will experience a five-year compound annual growth rate of 32.6 percent from 2023 to 2027. Global shipments of AR/VR headsets are expected to grow from 10.1 million units in 2023 to nearly 25 million by 2026.

The recent emergence of the metaverse is creating new uses for AR and VR and new digital worlds. The metaverse is a 3–D-enabled digital space that uses augmented and virtual reality and other converging technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, digital twins, blockchain technology, cloud computing, social platforms, e-commerce, Internet of Things) to create a lifelike experience online.

The metaverse is an emerging 3–D-enabled digital space that uses converging technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, digital twins, blockchain technology, cloud computing, social platforms, e-commerce, Internet of Things) to create a lifelike experience online. It can be used by people to have fun, engage in commerce, meet business and other goals, and for other purposes. Dave Chirag, the founder of Digidreamcatcher (a digital marketing agency) discussed the promise of the metaverse in an article on LinkedIn.

At its core, the metaverse is all about social interaction. Users are able to interact with each other in real-time, often in ways that mimic real-world social interactions. This presents a unique opportunity for social media platforms to expand beyond their current capabilities and offer users a truly immersive, engaging experience. Imagine a social media platform where users can create their own avatars and interact with others in a virtual environment, attending events, and participating in activities like concerts, classes, and games. The metaverse could potentially bring social media to life, creating a more meaningful and authentic way for people to connect with each other.

Potential drawbacks to the use of the metaverse exist in the areas of privacy, user safety, and intellectual property. In addition, experts believe that the metaverse could become a top destination for cyberattacks in the next few years. “The metaverse represents an area where consumer threats will be different from years past,” says Anna Larkina, a security expert at Kaspersky, who was quoted in an article about cybersecurity threats at the company’s Web site. “Fake, malicious VR and AR apps, as well as privacy risks and potential abuse associated with this new frontier, will account for threats we haven’t necessarily seen before,” she says.

The data analytics firm Gartner estimates that 20 percent of people will spend at least one hour per day in the metaverse by 2026. The global metaverse market size was valued at $47.48 billion in 2022, according to Strategic Market Research, and it is expected to reach a valuation of $678.8 billion by 2030.

In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, announced that the company would change its name to Meta and become a “metaverse company.” The New York Times reports that “Meta has spent billions of dollars and assigned thousands of employees to make Mr. Zuckerberg’s dream feasible. But Meta’s metaverse efforts have had a rocky start.” It remains to be seen if Zuckerberg’s metaverse strategy will pay off.

Social Commerce

Social commerce is a subsector of e-commerce in which people use social media to sell products and services—eliminating the need to visit brick-and-mortar stores or an organization’s Web site. Consumers often use social commerce, most commonly by reading reviews/comments, receiving promotional offers, and viewing advertisements. Social media companies such as Meta (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Threads), Pinterest, Snapchat, and X offer tools that allow users to purchase goods and services that are promoted by “friends,” “followers,” and other users. Social commerce also involves traditional and online companies creating a presence on social media sites and platforms to promote their brand and sell their products or services. Social commerce is different from e-commerce in that companies engaged in social commerce seek to create a community of people who can recommend and otherwise promote products and services, rather than the more impersonal, transactional approach of e-commerce. Social commerce revenue in the United States reached $64.8 billion in 2023, according to Statista.com, which predicted an increase to nearly $150 billion in 2028. There were an estimated 106.8 million social buyers in 2023. Statista predicts that this total will grow by almost 10.6 percent, with over 118 million Americans expected to make purchases through social networks. Leading social commerce vendors include Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok. McKinsey & Company says that social commerce is “already too big for U.S. brands to ignore. In fact, it has the potential to become their best channel, given the possibilities for new levels of engagement with consumers and the opportunity to hyper-target customer segments. Because consumers are both discovering and buying products in one medium, social commerce merges marketing and retail channels into a single dynamic universe.”

Video Is King

In 2022, U.S. adults spent an average of 3 hours and 2 minutes watching digital video each day, according to eMarketer, a significant increase from 21 minutes daily in 2011. Americans are increasingly watching longer-form content such as television shows and feature-length movies. Independent filmmakers and other creative individuals are creating channels on YouTube and other Web sites to circumvent the traditional delivery systems (television, cable, movie theaters, etc.) for creative work. Amazon, Netflix, Apple+, Hulu, Disney+, and other online content providers are producing new content and purchasing new films and television shows from independent filmmakers.

Over the years, social media companies—initially YouTube, Buzzfeed, and Mashable, and later Meta, X, Snapchat, and other firms—have also got into the video act. Some social networking sites have taken the use of video one step further, offering live video. In late 2015, Facebook launched Live Video, which became a popular feature on the social networking site. It is now referred to as Facebook Live. The popularity of livestreaming on Facebook and Twitter has prompted both companies to seek our broadcast deals with third parties. One such example is the deal made between Amazon and the National Football League to livestream its games. In 2021, Amazon agreed to pay approximately $1 billion a year for the exclusive rights to livestream Thursday Night Football games. The first game was livestreamed in January 2022.

Stories are Growing in Popularity

Stories—short, user-generated video collections and slideshows that typically are available for up to 24 hours—are becoming more popular on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other social media sites. SocialMediaToday.com reported in 2019 that Instagram Stories, as well as WhatsApp Status (its version of Stories), were used by more than 500 million people every day. More recent statistics are unavailable, but the number of users today is higher because Stories have become even more popular. Nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and businesses are increasingly using Stories to share information, educate people, or sell their products and services. In 2022, HubSpot reported that 49 percent of GenZ consumers it surveyed preferred to discover new products via Instagram stories. Look for this trend to continue as more people use social media to obtain information about—and even purchase—products and services.

Going Mobile

ComScore reports that the “rise of smartphones and tablets has drastically altered consumers’ digital media consumption—changing the way people access content, where they consume it, and the frequency of consumption.” Many people are consuming media away from the “classic Web” (traditional computers). In December 2015 (the latest year for which data is available), mobile devices were used 79 percent of the time to access social media, according to Cross-Platform Future in Focus U.S.: 2016, from ComScore. Statista reports that 76 percent of survey respondents used a mobile phone to access Facebook in the third quarter of 2019. Eighty-three percent used a mobile phone to access Instagram. The percentages were lower for LinkedIn (54 percent) and Pinterest (66 percent). In 2023, 90 percent of people in the United States had smartphones, according to the Pew Research Center, with 18–29-year-olds solidly at 76 percent ownership. In developing foreign countries, this trend is even more prevalent, since most consumers are more apt to have a smartphone than a personal computer. By 2025, 72.6 percent of Internet users will access the web solely via their smartphones, according to a report from the World Advertising Research Center.

The Rise of the “Digital Omnivore”

The increasing availability of smartphones and tablets has created what some in the industry call “digital omnivores,” those who use multiple devices to research and purchase products, surf the Internet, and communicate. This is good news for tech companies, but publishers and advertisers must get a handle on how these devices are altering the way consumers engage with content, and determine how to format content and allocate advertising dollars.

Privacy Issues Come to the Forefront

In an attempt to grow advertising revenue and market share, Internet and social media companies are collecting more and more personal information from consumers. Consumers are rebelling against this perceived invasion of privacy by canceling site memberships, contacting companies such as Facebook to complain about privacy policies, and even choosing to access content from providers that collect less or no customer information. Ninety-four percent of consumers who were surveyed in May 2022 by Qonsent and CITE Research said that having control over the information they provided to companies—and how that information is used—was important. Sixty-six percent of this total said it was “very important” to have control. “The implications of this survey not only show that data privacy is a growing concern and there’s increased awareness amongst consumers, it’s especially important that we do everything to enable control for consumers,” said Jesse Redniss, CEO and co-founder of Qonsent. “It has become a moral imperative to ensure that each brand builds better experiences through trust and transparency.” As a result, many privacy experts believe that the social media and other tech sectors need to shift from a mind-set of “customer ownership” toward a position in which the customer is “in control.” Look for users to seek more control of their personal information at Web and social media sites in the future.

Protecting Intellectual Property

Digital technology and the Internet have made it much easier to steal or pirate copyrighted films, television shows, music, video games, and digital publications and content. Many Web sites feature copyrighted text, photos, video, and other content that has been illegally posted. Some Internet and social media companies have been accused of being lax regarding intellectual property rights and even knowingly using copyrighted material. The total cost of cybercrime (including the theft of intellectual property) in the U.S. reached $320 billion in 2023, according to Statista. It was expected to grow to $1.8 trillion by 2028. Jobs and tax revenue are also lost. Copyright owners are more frequently pursuing legal means to stop the illegal distribution of their copyrighted material. They are also working closely with the content industry to fight online intellectual property theft. Expect copyright infringement and digital piracy to remain a major issue for years to come.

The need to better protect intellectual property, as well as protect social media sites and companies from cyberattacks and other cybercrimes, has increased demand for information security professionals (ISPs), yet they are in short supply. Nearly 1.5 million cybersecurity workers were employed in the U.S. in 2023, according to ISC2. But the industry association reports that there was a shortage of more than 1.3 million workers in the United States, and shortages also exist worldwide.

The Cloud

Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular. It is a type of computing in which individuals and companies store and access data, utilize application software, and perform other tasks on the Internet—tasks that they could only do on their own computers in the past. Cloud computing helps businesses save time and money. The International Data Corporation, a market research, analysis, and advisory firm, reports that the worldwide public cloud services market reached $233.4 billion in 2019—up from $160 billion in 2018 and $45.7 billion in 2013. The market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.7 percent from 2022 to 2027, with worldwide revenues reaching $1.34 trillion in 2027. Major market segments include software as a service ( the largest segment), cloud system infrastructure services, and infrastructure as a service.

Another cloud-related trend is the emergence of the personal cloud, which Gartner defines as an “individual’s collection of digital content, services and apps which are seamlessly accessible across any device.” Large companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP, Amazon, and Alphabet have created personal cloud ecosystems.

Internet Censorship

Internet censorship is the limiting of access or suppression of information on the Internet for a variety of reasons. This type of censorship can be done by countries (such as was done by certain Middle Eastern governments during the Arab Spring), by companies and organizations as requested by foreign countries (Google, for example, received criticism in the 2000s for agreeing to China’s Internet censorship policies in order to do business in the country; in more recent years, it faced criticism for its efforts to launch a censored version of its search app in China), and by private individuals and organizations for various reasons (including those of a religious and ethical nature). Internet censorship varies greatly by country. The United States and other Western nations typically have the least net censorship. Other countries strictly censor the Internet. According to Comparitech, the following countries ranked highest in Internet censorship in 2023:

1. North Korea, China, and Iran (tie)
2. Iraq, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan (tie)
3. Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (tie)

Comparitech describes itself as a “pro-consumer Web site providing information, tools, reviews, and comparisons to help our readers in the U.S., U.K. and the rest of the world improve their cyber security and privacy online.” Visit its Web site, https://www.comparitech.com/blog/vpn-privacy/internet-censorship-map, for detailed information regarding how these countries were evaluated and ranked.

Two noteworthy Internet censorship-related bills being debated in the U.S. Congress are the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act. Hollywood, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Congressional backers of these bills believe that these bills must be passed in order to protect U.S. intellectual property from copyright infringement by foreign companies. Tech companies such as Alphabet, X, Zynga, eBay, Meta, Mozilla, and Yahoo! oppose the bills, saying in a letter to key members of Congress that SOPA poses “a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation’s cybersecurity.” The proposed laws are extremely controversial, and, at press time, consideration of their legislation has been postponed.

The Dark Side of the Internet

In recent years, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and sexual exploitation of children have increased as more people use the Internet and social media and societal norms of appropriate behavior break down as a result of the perceived anonymity provided by these platforms.

Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place with the use of electronic technology, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, with “examples of cyberbullying including mean text messages or e-mails, rumors sent by e-mail or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, Web sites, or fake profiles.” In 2022, 46 percent of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 reported experiencing at least one of six cyberbullying behaviors asked about in a Pew Research Center survey. Although teens often report cyberbullying, it’s important to note that people of all ages are cyberbullied. In worst-case scenarios, cyberbullying has led to real-world violence, property damage, and increases in depression and even the suicide of those who are bullied.

Cyberstalking is a crime in which the Internet, social media, or other technology (e-mail, instant messaging, electronic listening or tracking devices, etc.) are used to stalk or harass an individual or organization. News reports are filled with stories of cyberstalking—some which have escalated into real-world crimes (including assault and murder). The number of cyberstalking incidents continues to increase despite attempts by law enforcement to catch cyberstalkers and efforts by legislators to strengthen cyberstalking laws.

In early 2024, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and the chief executives of X, TikTok, Snap, and Discord were grilled by members of Congress in a hearing titled Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis. The hearing was called to “examine and investigate the plague of online child sexual exploitation,” according to a statement released by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Executives cited controls and tools that their companies had introduced to manage children’s online experiences and reduce harm, but many elected officials stated that they were not doing enough to address these issues. Two of the five chief executives—Evan Spiegel, chief executive of Snap, and Linda Yaccarino, the leader of X—agreed to support the Kids Online Safety Act, a proposed law that would require online services such as social media networks, messaging apps, and video game sites to take “reasonable measures” to prevent harm to minors who use their platforms. If passed, the law would seek to reduce online bullying, harassment, and the sexual exploitation of minors, as well as reduce social media content that may encourage anorexia and self-harm amongst children. Opponents of the act have concerns regarding its potential effects on privacy and censorship. Another proposed law, the Strengthening Transparency and Obligation to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment Act, seeks to crack down on the proliferation of child sex abuse material online. “Despite years of railing against Big Tech in public, no meaningful legislation has moved its way through Congress to be signed into law,” according to a January 2024 article in the New York Times.

Private organizations, school districts, government agencies, and members of Congress are working together to stop cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and child sexual exploitation—although these problems are so pervasive that experts believe that they will get worse before they get better.