Protecting children online shouldn’t fall solely on parents
There was a time when parents could reasonably know where their children were, who they were speaking with, and what they were watching. The boundaries of childhood were imperfect, but they were visible: the school, the neighborhood, the television in the family room, the telephone attached to the wall.
TL;DR
- Children can easily encounter dangerous situations online, including predatory contact, exposure to adult content, bullying, and invasive data collection, even through educational devices.
- Platforms like Steam allow children to create accounts without parental permission, granting access to explicit games, and companies like Meta have reportedly allowed adults to contact children and had lenient policies on sex trafficking violations.
- Tech companies actively lobby against online child protection legislation, shifting the responsibility and burden onto parents.
- Resources like the Parent Center and NCMEC's Take It Down service offer guidance and tools for parents to help protect their children online.
- A collaborative effort involving governments, officials, tech companies, and parents is necessary to address the evolving online harms to children.