We Have a Shared Goal of Protecting Our Kids Online, but We Need to Do It Right

From the early days of dial-up internet, to now being able to have information at your fingertips at a moment’s notice, the internet has come a long way. Within the evolution of this digital era, child online safety regulations have been front and center, and rightly so. There is no doubt that we need to protect children’s health, safety, and privacy online.

It goes without saying that measures do need to be put in place to protect children online. However, current legislative proposals fail to truly protect minors in the long term. That’s not to say that there aren’t viable solutions that actually meet the moment.

First, federal online child safety legislation must put comprehensive and transparent privacy measures in place. That means requiring companies to minimize the collection of children’s data and restricting the ways that information can be used. Additionally, online platforms must make their data collection practices clear. Published terms, policies, and community standards should be concise, prominent, and accessible.

Importantly, federal children’s legislation should empower appropriate government authorities and provide them with a clear enforcement mechanism. This would ensure that regulators can hold companies accountable for their privacy practices without creating a patchwork of unwieldy and unworkable laws.

As we continue to grow in a digital age that will only become more connected, creating a safe online community for children and teenagers is critical. We have to get this right and there are many thoughtful and well-researched approaches that get us close to the mark. Take, for example, the work that my colleagues at the Software and Industry Association have done to help steer towards a better solution or the careful analysis that the Center for Democracy and Technology has provided.

We must protect children online but at the same time, we cannot do that while eviscerating privacy laws, ignoring First Amendment rights, and emboldening politicians to determine what content our children should be privy to. Appropriate safeguards can be put in place without the wide-reaching ramifications of bills like COPPA 2.0 and KOSA. I urge my former colleagues to work toward a comprehensive online child safety law that will make the internet safe for everyone.