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“It really is those phones,” said Sofia Moreno, a junior at Athens Drive Magnet High School in Raleigh.
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Her declaration against cellphones was met with applause by dozens of residents gathered Tuesday evening at the Five Points Active Adult Center.
Moreno said what many teens are missing is genuine connection with other people. She was one of several teenagers and nonprofit leaders on a panel at Tuesday’s forum on potential measures — including a youth curfew — the city can take to address juvenile crime after what police called a “teen takeover” on July 4.
Thousands of young people turned out to Glenwood South and Brier Creek, where six separate shootings happened that night. Raleigh police described them as minors, but most of those they arrested were over 18.
The City Council initially seemed to support Police Chief Rico Boyce’s idea of a curfew for minors. However, after a series of council meetings over the summer with public comment strongly against the measure, council members have cooled on the idea.
Police pointed to social media as a large driver of turnout to the takeovers.
But Moreno said that overuse of social media can lead to less human connection.
Programs like the Raleigh Summer Youth Employment Program — which is run by the city and provides jobs to teens — helps give young people something to do and people to connect with, she said. Moreno herself got experience and social interaction from the program.
The meeting enabled council members, who roved between roundtable discussions including city employees and residents, to gather input on how to respond to juvenile crime. The council will vote at some point on the curfew, and council members will decide what other measures to take.
Desmond Jones, the board chair of the city of Raleigh’s youth ambassadors and a Willow Spring High School student, added that young people don’t want to feel over-policed.
“I don’t feel like that means a complete erasure of authority, because young people definitely do need authority,” Jones said.
He said the city should continue efforts to include teens in conversations, and the forum was a good step.
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And many of the young people also at Tuesday’s forum said similar things to Moreno. They want more opportunities for youth to engage with each other and find connection with less time spent on social media.
But Sanvi Rokkala, a junior at Panther Creek High School in Cary, said that one of the biggest reasons more young people are not engaged with youth programming is that they don’t know about it.
“They’re just not findable,” she said. “Although social media has a lot of cons, it’s kind of the only way that people who are miles away can hear about things.”
She said many youth programs need to be advertised and promoted on social media for young people to find them.
And Rokkala said that immigrants like her face more challenges. Though she is a legal immigrant, she had trouble participating in Raleigh’s youth employment program because her visa status gets in the way.
She said programs like that should be changed to allow immigrants have easier access to them. She now has an internship at The Resiliency Collaborative, a nonprofit aimed at empowering youth, but she said unpaid opportunities are much more accessible to people in her situation.
Most of those in attendance Tuesday were not in favor of a curfew.
Many said teens were unfairly maligned after the July 4 incidents.
Rokkala said that even in instances when juveniles do commit crime, it shouldn’t reflect on everyone in her age group.
People should pay more attention to the good things teens are doing and highlight the clubs and other engagement efforts they have available, she said.
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The council has not yet scheduled another discussion of a curfew.
This story was originally published October 12, 2026 at 10:50 PM.