Unmonitored Minors on Dangerous Devices
December 5, 2023
Device manufacturers and app developers pretend that existing age-ratings of apps are effective; they turn a blind eye to the inappropriate ads that have pestered children for over a decade; they tell us that devices, in themselves, are child-safe. The engaged parent recognizes the deceitfulness of these assurances.
On November 16, the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) and the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) released a policy brief on device-level regulation to address these three predicates, among others. The brief couldn’t be timelier. Concerns regarding children’s online experiences drove 42 states to sue Meta over its addictive and harmful designs in October 2023. These lawsuits pose powerful challenges to unnecessarily dangerous and addictive features of Meta apps, and consistent litigation will continue to be essential for this issue. Yet these efforts, however critical, leave a primary issue unaddressed, that the dealers of these substances—device and app store manufacturers—have thus far avoided legislative and legal attention. The IFS/EPPC brief recommends several ways to close that loop.
