The call comes several months after the White House promised in an advisory to dedicate more resources and brainpower to two big questions: How exactly is internet access affecting young people, and what should the rest of us be doing about it?
Public data-gathering is the first step in actions, Alan Davidson, NTIA administrator and assistant secretary of commerce, said in an interview. Those actions may include policy recommendations, voluntary guidelines for tech companies and resources for parents. The goal of collecting public comments is to understand the risks internet use poses to young people and how adults can mitigate those risks.
The request urged parents, educators, caregivers, technologists, advertisers and online creators to submit comments. To comment, go to the regulations.gov website, search for NTIA-2023-008 and select “comment now.”
The well-being of kids and teens online is a talking point for politicians on both sides of the aisle. But lawmakers have been slow to rally around a set of demands, and tech companies have lobbied hard against state and federal measures requiring safety and privacy guardrails for young people online. In May, the U.S. surgeon general issued an advisory linking social media use to poor mental health.
So far, research into the effects of internet use on mental health for kids and teens paints a conflicting picture. On one hand, the internet gives young people access to friends, information and skills that can bolster their mental health. On the other hand, problems like online bullying, social comparison and predation leave some kids, especially vulnerable ones, open to hardship and trauma.
“There’s a lot of research out there, and not all of it is clear,” NTIA’s Davidson said. “But we don’t need to see a lot more [evidence] to feel comfortable that we need to take action.”
Davidson said his hope is that the comment-gathering process yields not just a clearer understanding of the problem, but a peek into the solutions people already use to keep kids healthy online. Those solutions might help craft voluntary guidelines for tech companies, or even new regulation, Davidson said, noting that his task force includes the Federal Trade Commission, a regulatory agency.
Katharina Kopp, deputy director of the digital rights advocacy group Center for Digital Democracy, said tech companies are unlikely to implement the changes advocates call for without strong government action.
“Voluntary industry guidelines will not shield young people from the serious harms caused by social media,” Kopp said in a statement. “These companies have made repeated promises over the years to institute safeguards for children and teens, while continuing to develop manipulative, addictive and discriminatory online environments.”
Another potential stumbling block is the scope and complexity of the problem. Asking after the health of kids and teens on social media is too broad a question, said Jordan Shapiro, an associate professor at Temple University and author of “The New Childhood,” a book about parenting in the digital age.
“The same things that make [internet use] great for some kids are the things that take other kids right down the rabbit hole,” Shapiro said.
Unraveling the discourse around young people’s online safety is doubly difficult because both parents and children repeat what they hear from the news media, Shapiro said: The internet is making young people lonely and depressed. That might distract from conversations about specific harms and concrete fixes, such as retiring exploitative app designs that prioritize advertisers over young users, Shapiro said.
Open conversations like the one NTIA is initiating are helpful and necessary, Shapiro said. Parents who want to contribute a comment should first talk to kids about both the positives and negatives of social media to get a fuller picture of how it affects them, he said.
Young people should share their perspectives with policymakers, as well, said Zamaan Qureshi, co-chair of youth advocacy organization Design It For Us. Design It For Us has publicly supported the Kids Online Safety Act, which would legally require tech companies to avoid harming children. It has also called for an end to mass data collection from minors and manipulative design patterns, Qureshi said.
“It’s crucial for young people to weigh in,” he said. “It’s not always that the government is asking questions about what young people are experiencing.”
