Children have fundamental rights to education, safety, and privacy. This section of “Handbook of Children and Screens: Digital Media, Development, and Well-Being from Birth Through Adolescence” addresses these rights by highlighting policies meant to protect children’s digital privacy and data, reduce the digital divide, and implement media literacy programs into education. As it currently stands, digital tech corporations generally prioritize profit over children’s safety, with little government oversight in most countries. These practices put children’s well-being at risk. Another area of concern for children’s well-being is internet access, which varies by children’s location and household income. This digital divide means that less affluent children lack access to critical digital literacy resources. As a result, these children may be more susceptible to misinformation and disinformation than their wealthier peers. The authors for this section of the handbook use a children’s rights framework to offer policy suggestions to address these issues.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are excerpts from the "Media Policy" section of the “Handbook of Children and Screens: Digital Media, Development, and Well-Being from Birth Through Adolescence." This open access publication is free to download in full or by individual chapters via the links provided following the recommendations below.
- Complete training to critically evaluate online information.
- Co-create and implement digital literacy programs with students.
- Engage with policymakers and support students in doing the same.
- Monitor platform-specific age restrictions and consider appropriate limits for your individual child.
- Develop and implement a robust legal framework for digital services that aligns with international child rights frameworks.
- Encourage collaboration between policymakers and tech companies.
- Include children in policy development.
- Provide independent researchers access to industry data.
- Invest in infrastructure that reduces digital inequalities, including providing as many people as possible with high-speed internet and addresses pandemic impacts on youth accessibility to tech and resources.
- Invest in digital literacy programs.
- Center policies that promote child safety and privacy by design and by default, including:
- Promoting children’s autonomy
- Balancing children’s need for protection and participation.
- Ensuring safeguards for children’s privacy and data protection and limit associated harms such as discrimination.
- Preventing social media platforms from using designs that harm youth.
- Enforcing age verification or restrictions according to platform policies.
- Implement preventative measures into social media platforms (e.g., self-harm).
- Conduct independent risk minimization audits that consider young people’s perspectives on responsible design.
- Enforce age-related platform restrictions.
- Share internal research on the effects of platform designs.
- Provide expert insight for policy development and decisions.
- Supplement survey designs with neuroscientific and objective use data.
- Use ethnographic approaches to contextualize youth digital media use.
- Evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of new digital policies and interventions, including comparative studies of national efforts.
- Fill gaps in the evidence base with more research on young children and vulnerable or disadvantaged youth.
- Incorporate and elevate youth perspectives.
Media Policy Section Chapters
Introduction to the Media Policy Section
Colleen Kraft, MD, and Ellen Wartella, PhD
Digital Policy Trends: Regulations, Interventions and Policy Solutions
Teki Akuetteh, LLM, Lionel Brossi, PhD, Emma Day, LLM, Rys Farthing, DPhil, Josh Golin, MA, Brian O’Neill, PhD
Social Media Use in Childhood and Adolescence: Minimizing Its Adverse Effects Through Corporate Social Responsibility and European Union Regulation
Christian Montag, PhD, Zsolt Demetrovics, PhD, Jon Elhai, PhD, Don Grant, PhD, Ina Koning, PhD, Hans-Jüergen Rumpf, PhD, Marcantonio Spada, PhD, Melina Throuvala, PhD, Regina van den Eijnden, PhD
Distinguishing Credible from Sham: Supporting Young People to Navigate Online
Joel Breakstone, PhD, Sarah McGrew, PhD, Mark Smith, PhD, Sam Wineburg, PhD
Children’s Privacy in the Digital Age: US and UK Experiences and Policy Responses
Sonia Livingstone, DPhil, Eva Lievens, PhD, Richard Graham, MD, Kruakae Pothong, PhD, Stacey Steinberg , JD, Mariya Stoilova, PhD
Bridging America’s Homework Gap by Closing the Digital Divide
Bhaskar Chakravorti, PhD, Stephen Aguilar, PhD, Arturo Franco, MPA, Reg Leichty, JD, Morgan Scott Polikoff, PhD
Global Perspectives on Youth and the Digital Environment: Learnings from Majority World Countries
Lucía Magis-Weinberg, MD, PhD, Matías Dodel, PhD, Luci Pangrazio, PhD, Manisha Pathak-Shelat, PhD, Sisi Tao, PhD, Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam, PhD
Education Technology: Summary and Recommendations
Summary and Recommendations found in the "Handbook of Children and Screens: Digital Media, Development, and Well-Being from Birth Through Adolescence," Part Three: Digital Domains, Education Technology Section (pages 517-567)
Emerging Technologies: Summary and Recommendations
Summary and Recommendations found in the "Handbook of Children and Screens: Digital Media, Development, and Well-Being from Birth Through Adolescence," Part Three: Digital Domains, Emerging Technologies Section (pages 605-649)
Video Gaming, Violence, and Gambling: Summary and Recommendations
Summary and Recommendations found in the "Handbook of Children and Screens: Digital Media, Development, and Well-Being from Birth Through Adolescence," Part Three: Digital Domains, Video Gaming, Violence, and Gambling Section (pages 569-603)
Problematic Use of the Internet: Summary and Recommendations
Summary and Recommendations found in the "Handbook of Children and Screens: Digital Media, Development, and Well-Being from Birth Through Adolescence," Part One: Research Concerning Cognitive, Physical, Mental, and Psychosocial Impacts on Children, Problematic Use of the Internet Section (pages 173-209)
Race, Racism, and Digital Media: Summary and Recommendations
Summary and Recommendations found in the "Handbook of Children and Screens: Digital Media, Development, and Well-Being from Birth Through Adolescence," Part Two: Research on How Media Influence Relationships, Family, Culture, and Society, Race, Racism, and Digital Media Section (pages 263-316)
Screens and Physical Health: Summary and Recommendations
Summary and Recommendations found in the "Handbook of Children and Screens: Digital Media, Development, and Well-Being from Birth Through Adolescence," Part One: Research Concerning Cognitive, Physical, Mental, and Psychosocial Impacts on Children, Screens and Physical Health Section (pages 61-116)
Which social media features harm youth mental health?
Which social media features affect kids’ mental health? Why are kids more vulnerable to these features than adults? What changes can social media platforms make to reduce these harms?
How do platforms verify children’s ages?
There’s extensive talk about age verification. But what is it? How do platforms make sure users are old enough? And can they do a better job?
AI and Children: Risks and Opportunities of the Enhanced Internet
Generative AI technologies like ChatGPT are changing the nature of online communications, work, creativity, and learning. What are the impacts to children’s social and cognitive development in this new, turbocharged Internet?
Algorithms 101: Youth and AI-Driven Tech
What can families do about the growing influence of algorithmically-delivered content on youth’s development, preferences, and minds?
Captive Market: Protecting Children in the New World of Online Advertising
How does hidden online advertising impact children's attitudes and behaviors? How and why is youth data collected, and what can or should be done to safeguard children online?
The Lure of Loot: Gambling and Manipulative Design in Youth Video Games
Video games popular with youth increasingly contain gambling features and other design elements intended to entice children to spend real money in games - how is this impacting kids? What can be done about it?