\n
![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/GettyImages-169816088-e1722022686286.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
While 86% of parents have expressed concern over the online safety<\/a> of their kids, according to a recent State of the Youth<\/a> survey, many don\u2019t know what to do about it\u2014and about one in three wish they had more resources to help them figure it out.<\/p>\n This week, the White House heeded that call<\/a>. Noting that approximately 95% of teenagers and 40% of children between 8 and 12 use some form of social media\u2014which has been connected by the U.S. Surgeon General<\/a> and others<\/a> to the ongoing youth mental-health crisis<\/a>\u2014the Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force released a massive report<\/a> of best practices both for families and the industry. It called for more industry accountability and for Congress to pass the Kid\u2019s Online Safety Act (KOSA)<\/a>, the first law aiming to protect children online since 1998\u2014long before smartphones or TikTok even existed.\u00a0<\/p>\n KOSA\u2014which is endorsed by groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Federation of Teachers, and Common Sense Media (and opposed by Meta platforms)\u2014appears to have enough bipartisan support to pass, and cleared a major Senate hurdle<\/a> on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bill, expected to come up for a vote on July 30, would set a \u201cduty of care\u201d standard<\/a> for social media companies with users who are minors\u2014something that opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union<\/a>, worry would censor important LGBTQ, reproductive, and sexual health information to youth. It would also require such platforms offer options for minors to protect their information and disable addictive features by default.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the best practices for parents, which suggest building a family media plan, discussing social media with their children, and being intentional about creating screen-free time, are out there<\/a> (p. 19-24) for families to lean on right now.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n But do these best practices\u2014and the KOSA, for that matter\u2014go far enough? Fortune<\/em> got industry experts and psychologists to weigh in.<\/p>\n \u201cKOSA is a compromise. There\u2019s no question about it, but it\u2019s a needed bill, and it\u2019s still a very good bill,\u201d he says, which will be helpful \u201conce you work things out in the courts. Because obviously tech companies, every time a bill is passed, I assume they will sue in federal court. There\u2019s sort of no way around that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That could tie it up for some time, he explains, \u201cbecause the Supreme Court hasn\u2019t ruled yet on whether or not moderating content is a First Amendment violation or if it\u2019s an obligation of companies. Our view is it\u2019s an obligation of companies to moderate content. It\u2019s not a First Amendment right for them to do whatever they want with no controls.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Regarding the parental guidance in the report, he says: \u201cLet\u2019s be candid: The average parent will not see this report. I do think they did an excellent job collecting very good recommendations \u2026 but\u00a0 it\u2019s up to other organizations and individuals and pediatricians to talk about this. That\u2019s a big thing that we do at Common Sense Media,\u201d especially through its Digital Citizenship Curriculum<\/a>. It\u2019s used by 1.3 million teachers in 87,000 schools in the U.S., offering lesson plans for teachers to try to help kids have a healthier relationship with technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n Parents who do look at the report might find its length and breadth to be overwhelming. Which is why Weiss suggests picking one recommendation and starting with that. He suggests choosing the idea of simply engaging with your kid about the content they\u2019re consuming. \u201cI would very casually just say, \u2018Hey, what are you laughing at? What are you frowning at? Tell me about it.\u2019 Create that opening so that your kid knows that you\u2019re not judging them, but that you care about them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n When the task force released its guidance earlier this week, Weiss attended the event, which featured a panel of three teens. \u201cOne of them just said, \u2018Look, we\u2019re not perfect. We know that we use our stuff too much. But we know that our brains are still developing, and we don\u2019t have the wherewithal, frankly, to overcome the allure of technology,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cAnd so they want solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a dad. I have four kids. We\u2019ve had personal struggles with one of our kids, kind of related to mental health issues. And as [our family has] sort of dug into it, we do see that there is some very clear correlation \u2026 between invested time on devices and using social media platforms, especially when she feels down.\u201d<\/p>\n Regarding the bill, he says, \u201cI think keeping big tech a bit more accountable is really good because there is a general conflict of interest between the economic incentives for large technology companies versus safety. Putting a bit more pressure on there, I think, is a very positive thing.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the best practices\u2019 suggestions is to initiate honest conversations about social media and its effects. And while it may be important, he says, it can prove difficult with teens. \u201cThis is literally a daily battle with my older kids. Initially, she would be very straightforward about it. Now, when she knows that there\u2019s a consequence, the narrative kind of changes quite a bit. There\u2019s a bit more hiding of stuff, so I think it\u2019s a continuous cat and mouse game.\u201d<\/p>\n The report lays out its concept of \u201c5 Cs\u201d for parental guidance\u2014child (know your child\u2019s temperament), content (monitor quality), calm (direct away from technology for self-soothing), crowding out (encourage less time online and more outside), and communication (help build digital media literacy)\u2014which \u201cresonates really well for me,\u201d Ravichandran says. \u201cI think it\u2019s a really nice framework \u2026 But it would be helpful to parents if we had some help on our side, which is policy, right?\u201d<\/p>\n So between the report and the bill together, he says, \u201cI think it\u2019s a start.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really appreciative of the attention to the problem. I think the problem is really massive, and social media is certainly affecting our kids and youth negatively right now. Unfortunately, I don\u2019t think that this bill has the right approach. I believe there are better ideas out there than this, and I think that this is quite vague in its prescriptions. And I think that we will get a lot of court battles over this for years to come.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Corporate lawyers will find lots of ways to attack this bill, Witbeck says, particularly around the idea of age verification being inherently required. \u201cThey\u2019ve taken out the explicit<\/em> requirement of age verification, but the implicit requirement is still there because the \u2018duty of care\u2019 that\u2019s established by the bill essentially means that these platforms are responsible for what kids consume,\u201d he says of the bill. \u201cAnd the only way to determine if someone is a kid is really to get some sort of age verification completed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A better approach, Witbeck believes, would have been something Pinwheel has advocated for: \u201ccontent nutritional labels.\u201d Back in the early part of the 20th century, he explains, \u201cthere was a real problem with food quality, even safety, in this country. There were kids that died from drinking bad milk, and there was a huge campaign about the safety of our food. And so I think government mandated nutritional labels need to be applied to apps, saying, \u2018These are the types of things that are in this app, and these are the research-backed consequences.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI have long been an advocate for the safety and emotional wellbeing, particularly of racially, culturally and otherwise diverse youth. I served on Meta\u2019s online youth safety advisory group \u2026 providing best practices and guidance regarding a highly unaddressed group, intersectional Youth of Color.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n What Breland-Noble likes best about the new guidelines, she says, \u201cis that they explicitly name the harms faced by youth of color in the online space as a critical area of future research focus,\u201d though she wishes they had paid more attention to the unique and possible online harms for LGBTQ youth of color, as well as those with disabilities. She points to the AAKOMA Project 2023 brief<\/a>, \u201cRepresentation Matters: Exploring Social Media Experiences and Mental Health of Youth and Young Adults of Color,\u201d as a critical resource in that regard.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing that I\u2019m consistently amazed about is the fact that parents are reaching out, exasperated, without an idea of what to do, but also without the skill or the desire or the conviction to put restrictions in place\u2014even while knowing that they\u2019re seeing the harm of more anxiety, more depression, addiction to the device, addiction to social media apps. And yet they feel powerless or afraid to put some boundaries around it.\u201d<\/p>\n She believes it started when our kids were young, \u201cwhere the digital babysitter was so helpful to us,\u201d and so now \u201cwe have that teenager who is brought up with it\u2014not only to soothe us, but to soothe them. We cultivated this addiction, and now we\u2019re in trouble. We\u2019re behind the eight ball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The recommendations, as well as the law, Kelman says, \u201cshould have been in place as we started to grow with online access and social media\u2026 So of course, I\u2019m in support of it, but at the same time, it shouldn\u2019t be a Band-Aid in the sense that parents will just be like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s okay, because now there are restrictions.\u2019 Parents should still put guardrails in place. \u2026 Social media companies are designed to hook our children. So if we can prevent that with this \u2018duty of care\u2019 stuff, let\u2019s put it out there. But let\u2019s not forget our job as parents to give our kids access in a way that is safe and in their best interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nDanny Weiss<\/strong>, Chief Advocacy Officer for Common Sense Media<\/a> (part of the Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force)<\/h2>\n
Hari Ravichandran<\/strong>, CEO of online safety app Aura<\/a> and founder of Digital Parenthood<\/a>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Dane Witbeck, <\/strong>CEO and Founder of Pinwheel<\/a> kid-safe smartphones<\/h2>\n
Jennifer Kelman<\/strong>, JustAnswer Parenting & Mental Health Expert, and LCSW<\/h2>\n