Government Action To Protect Kids Online Is Long Overdue

Congress convened a hearing late last month to discuss the harms kids face online and what lawmakers can do to better protect them. On Wednesday, March 26, the witnesses who testified before House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade told the country in harrowing detail what, in its heart of hearts, Congress already knows: that growing up in the synthetic world of social media, online porn, smartphones, and now, AI friends and sexual relations, has devastated a generation. But will Congress finally do something about it?

The hearing featured experts from across the aisle, but the two most powerful witnesses were Dawn Hawkins of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and Clare Morell of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. As Hawkins noted in her opening statement, despite having spent nearly a decade discussing these issues and holding 23 hearings on kids' online safety since 2019, Congress has yet to pass a law protecting kids from the harms of social media, online predators, AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), or pornography. Every year that Congress fails to act, tech companies are free to profit off the exploitation of children. As Hawkins said, "This can be the Congress that finally says, 'Our kids deserve better.' ... [We got here because of] an internet policy built for profit, not protection. We must change the legal and economic incentives so another generation of children [is] not sacrificed."

Today, the weight of evidence that Congress needs to protect kids from online harms is becoming unbearable. Smartphone ownership and social media usage are ubiquitous among teens. Common Sense Media reports that 91 percent of teens own smartphones by age 14, and 84 percent report having used social media. Shockingly, over a quarter of three- and four-year-olds in the U.K. today have their own smartphone.

Recent research shows that the effects of excessive social media use and screentime lead to a variety of physical and mental health issues. As Morell said,

[These] products hijack human brain vulnerabilities, especially of developing brains. And a brain exposed frequently to social media resembles a brain hooked on the most highly addictive drugs. 

Problems sleeping, maintaining focus, feeling lonely, anxious and depressed, and suffering from body image issues—these are the bitter fruits of being history's first digital natives. Kids also face the threat of cyber-bullying and "sextortion," with no legal recourse to penalize the platforms that enable these bad actors. Today, generative AI is being used to produce "deep fake" CSAM.

The result of Congress' inaction is that law enforcement has no tools to prosecute sexual predators for generating deep fakes or for holding social media platforms accountable for failing to take down such content. What's more, despite the fact that the majority of parents limit their teen's digital usage, most remain worried that they will be exposed to harms online. The overwhelming majority of parents (81 percent) support requiring parental permission before a minor opens a social media account.

The patchwork of state laws, however necessary, isn't enough to protect kids online. Federal legislation is needed—and its success is more than possible. 

Recently, Meta rolled out new teen accounts (which may be the very first serious attempt at safety and parental controls of any social media company, period) and Apple and Google unveiled new safety features. These measures are positive steps, but they remain insufficient to stop the digital world from being warped into a weapon against America's kids.

Meanwhile, the public's desire to see legislation passed that institutes real changes continues to grow. Red and blue states alike have introduced and passed a flurry of laws to curb the addictive features of social media, age-gate pornography, expand legal definitions of CSAM to include non-consensual AI-generated content, and require parental consent before minors can create social media accounts. On the same day of the congressional hearing, Governor Spencer Cox of Utah signed into law a landmark bill, known as the App Store Accountability Act, which requires app stores to provide clear and accurate app age ratings and receive parental permission before a minor can download or purchase any app.

But the patchwork of state laws, however necessary, isn't enough to protect kids online. Federal legislation is needed—and its success is more than possible. Congress has the will of the public behind it. It has also indicated that it has the political will to pass such legislation. Last year, 91 senators voted in favor of the Kids Online Safety Act; and in February, the Take It Down Act sailed through the Senate by a voice vote.

Furthermore, it appears that the hand of Congress will be strengthened by the Supreme Court. In February's oral arguments for Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, the Justices signaled strong support for state laws that age verify pornography sites and hold them liable for failing to protect minors from accessing their obscene content.

How many more hearings does Congress need to have before it moves to protect kids online? American families are waiting. They need Congress to act.

Jared Hayden is a policy analyst for the Family First Tech Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies. Michael Toscano is director of the Family First Technology Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies.

Editor's Note: This article was appeared first in Newsweek. It is republished here with permission.