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John,
There’s no denying it: Social media now plays a daily part in many peoples’ lives in our society. While social media once promised to build a more interconnected, informed world, now the harms these online platforms are causing are exceeding that promise. And one of the areas where it’s had the most negative ripple effect? Kids’ online safety and mental health.
Big Tech companies have designed social media to maximize profit without regard to the impact — and they do so by exploiting children’s anxieties and keeping their attention longer. Not only does this pose an immediate risk to their mental health, it poses a future risk to the health of our democracy. Our childrens’ addictive relationship with social media makes them worse at interacting with people face-to-face and weakens their ability to think critically about content fed through manipulative algorithms. They are more likely to be exploited by bad actors with false information and this could lead to widespread distrust of our democratic processes.
Parents can’t fight this battle alone. Something needs to be done. Congress must put responsible safeguards on social media to protect the well-being of children online.
Write to your senators and tell them to support the Kids Online Safety Act!
The bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) would address the harmful social media business model by placing the health and wellbeing of children over advertising revenue. KOSA’s major provisions include requiring platforms to affirmatively mitigate key harms through their design and operations, disabling addictive product features, giving kids and parents tools to protect their private information, and much more.
Congress can no longer leave parents and children alone to fight powerful tech companies and their addictive products. We need responsible safeguards and we need them now.
Tell your senators to support KOSA!
Your support is crucial,
Alix Fraser
Council for Responsible Social Media Director
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