<!--
Pitch deck: Where's the Brake, for parents.
Audience: parents and caregivers of kids and teens.
Purpose: recognition, relief from blame, the wedge diagnosis in parent register (the feed serves
whatever gets the biggest reaction, so it feeds your kid a diet optimized to agitate), and concrete
action: test the feed, report a dead brake, demand working brakes and a see-the-machine control, not bans.
Format: gamma.app "Paste in Text" mode. Each `---` on its own line is a card break; `#` lines are card titles.
Date: 2026-07-16. Companion to the policymaker deck (2026-07-16-brake-integrity-pitch-policymakers.md),
the policy paper (2026-07-15-brake-integrity-standard.md), and the site (de-amplify.com).
Facts as of 2026-07-16; litigation moves weekly.

TO USE: In gamma.app choose "Paste in Text," then paste from the "# de-amplify" line below to the end.
Do not paste this comment. No em dashes (de-amplify house style); every `---` is a slide separator.
-->

# de-amplify: Where's the Brake?

For parents.

You set the limit. It did not stay set. That is not you, and it is not your kid.

---

# You already know this feeling

You switch the account to "following only." You turn off autoplay. You close the app.

Your kid opens it again, and the endless feed is right back.

The setting was there. It just did not hold.

---

# It is not willpower, and it is not your parenting

The feed is built to outlast both.

Variable rewards, autoplay, and a stream that refills itself are engineered to pull harder than a twelve-year-old's self-control, and harder than a tired parent at 9pm.

You are not losing to your kid. You are both losing to a machine designed to win. (You feel the same pull on your own feed. That is the tell: it is the design, not the person.)

---

# It is not just screen time. It is the diet.

The feed does not serve your kid what is good for them, or even what they would choose. It serves whatever gets the biggest reaction.

And the biggest reaction is usually outrage, fear, or the thing that makes them feel worse about themselves or about each other. So the feed drifts toward what agitates.

> Your kid's reaction is the product being sold. It is shaping how they see the world, not just how many hours they lose.

The same machine does it to you, on your feed. That is the tell.

---

# What is actually broken

Not one bad video. The machine that serves the next one:

- Infinite scroll with no stopping point
- Autoplay that starts the next thing before anyone decides
- Notifications and streaks that pull them back
- A feed that refills the second they open the app, tuned to whatever gets a rise out of them

A great video and a garbage one ride the same conveyor belt. The belt is the problem.

---

# The one question that cuts through

Skip the fight over "is my kid addicted." It goes nowhere, and it lands on your kid.

Ask the question you can actually test:

> When you turn something off, does it stay off?

Not a diagnosis. Not a willpower test. Just: does the off-switch work?

---

# What a working brake looks like

Score any control on your kid's feed the same way. A real brake passes all seven:

| The test | Ask yourself |
|---|---|
| Discoverable | Can you find the control without googling it? |
| Clear | Does it say what will change? "Show me less" is not "turn off recommendations." |
| Immediate | Does the feed change right after you set it? |
| Material | Does the feed actually change, or does it just look a little different? |
| Persistent | Does the choice survive closing the app, another device, and time? |
| Scoped | Does it cover Reels, Shorts, Explore, and notifications, or just one screen? |
| Non-circumventing | Does the platform respect it, or nag, reset, and route you back? |

---

# Try it tonight (thirty seconds)

1. Find the brake: the setting that should calm the feed.
2. Set it.
3. Close the app all the way.
4. Reopen it.

Did your choice hold, or did the feed quietly come back?

For most feeds, it comes back. That is the whole problem in one test. Score your result at **de-amplify.com/scorecard**.

---

# You are not imagining it, and you are not alone

This is in court now (as of July 2026):

- A New Mexico jury: **$375 million** against Meta over child safety.
- A California jury: **$6 million** against Meta and Google over addictive design.
- A federal judge sent the states to trial against Meta, and found the company's own documents could support calling its time-limit tools a **"public relations stunt."**

Lawmakers are moving too. The one thing still missing: a rule that the off-switch actually works.

---

# Why not just ban it, or take the phone away

Three "obvious" fixes that backfire:

- A **total ban** cuts your kid off from where their friends are, and starts an ID-and-surveillance fight to prove their age.
- **"Just take it away"** fights the loop with willpower. The loop is built to win that fight.
- The platforms' **own "parental controls"** are often the fake brake: a setting that exists mostly so they can say it exists.

We are asking for something narrower, and stronger.

---

# What we are actually asking for

Not censorship. Not a ban. A brake that works.

- **For every account:** when a control says it will calm the feed, it has to actually do it, and stay done.
- **For kids:** the safer settings ON by default, not buried three menus deep.
- **See the machine:** the feed should tell you why it showed something ("you are seeing this because you watched X"), and let you switch that signal off, so you and your kid can see how you are being steered instead of just being steered.

Turn it off, and it stays off. That is the whole idea.

---

# What this will not do (the honest part)

A working brake is not a cure. It will not raise your kid for you, and turning down the pull is the near-term win, not a promise about mental health.

What it does: give you back the off-switch, so the product has to answer to you, and your conversations with your kid are not fighting the machine at the same time.

A floor to stand on, not a silver bullet.

---

# What you can do this week

- **Test** your kid's feed with the thirty-second check (de-amplify.com/scorecard).
- **Report** a dead brake: one that claims to work and does not (de-amplify.com/report). It stores nothing about your kid.
- **Name the machine** with your kid: "it is showing you this to get a reaction." Seeing the trick is a skill, and it travels.
- **Tell** your representative: "Make the brakes work. Do not ban our kids." **Share** it: #WheresTheBrake.

---

# The whole ask, in one line

> You should be able to turn it off and have it stay off.

That is not too much to ask of a product in your child's hand.

**de-amplify.com**