This Christmas, Santa brought my 16-year-old son a new cell phone. This caused a bit of jealousy in my more irresponsible brother.
Deciding when to introduce your child to the world of technology can be a challenge. No matter how many rules your family has, it’s natural to worry about what your kids will find online and who they’ll talk to.
It’s been more than a quarter-century since Congress passed laws to protect children online. In 1998, less than half the country was connected to the Internet, and none of them might have used AOL. There was no Facebook either. There was no social media.
More than half of teens today say it’s difficult to give up their time on social media, according to a Pew Research poll. Half of parents are worried about what their children are exposed to online.
As Congress convenes here and across the country, there will no doubt be an onslaught of legislation aimed at protecting children online. Few would doubt the good intentions of these proposed policies.
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In Idaho’s last legislative session, the bill would have required “manufacturers of Internet-enabled devices to implement active technology that allows parents to make filtering decisions.”
A new Utah law requires social media companies to obtain parental consent for users under 18. It also allows full access to the child’s social media accounts if the parent consents.
Meanwhile, Colorado’s governor said he does not support the restrictions the state has imposed. And many restrictions and bills have been proposed in other states.
Social media and the internet are highly mobile. It would be nearly impossible for a company to create 50 different oversight mechanisms to accommodate the preferences of every state. Even when they do, teens and their families move fluidly across state lines. A patchwork of laws means they are not consistently protected.
That’s why, at a minimum, Congress needs to work with technology providers to create standards for the national market that uniformly protect children’s online health and safety.
One idea proposed by Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is to require parental consent for youth under 16 at the app store level. What does this mean? As a general rule, downloads of apps other than general items like search and email must be approved by parents. Age verification is completed at the app level, ensuring kids have the right app experience. All apps should be treated consistently.
Another proposal would require ad targeting criteria that would limit ad personalization to under-16s only by age and location. This means that potentially questionable advertisers and videos cannot target children under the age of 16.
These are common sense suggestions that recognize the complexity of the problem.
We need to protect our children online while ensuring we don’t stifle innovation and progress in the years to come. The patchwork of laws is troubling. It would be best to set a national standard that puts parents in the driver’s seat rather than the government.
Chris Cargill is director of the Mountain States Policy Center, an independent research organization with locations in Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming. Online: mountainstatespolicy.org.
It’s been more than a quarter-century since Congress passed laws to protect children online. In 1998, less than half the country was connected to the Internet, and none of them might have used AOL. There was no Facebook either. There was no social media.