On Wednesday, January 31, 2024, White House leaders and the co-chairs of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Task Force on Kids Online Health and Safety (KOHS Task Force) hosted a listening session with academic experts, youth advocates, civil society leaders, and practitioners on advancing the health, safety, and privacy of kids online.
Officials from the White House joined officials from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Office of the Surgeon General, and the Federal Trade Commission to welcome guests and to detail the Administration’s ongoing work to advance the health and safety of youth online.
This listening session is the first in a broader series that will inform the KOHS Task Force’s efforts to develop recommendations, best practices, and toolkits to protect and advance the interests of youth online.
Following the opening remarks of the event a range of topics were discussed by the participants including:
- The harms and risks kids and teens face online;
- The necessity of digital technologies for engaging in every-day life;
- Policy and design strategies that could center children’s well-being in companies’ product development processes;
- The need for solutions that center the experiences and perspectives of young people, including direct youth representation in policy and design processes;
- The importance of designing digital environments that help kids thrive, while identifying and addressing risks;
- The need to balance the risks and harms of social media with the value of online platforms in building communities, particularly for historically marginalized groups including LGBTQIA+, Black and Brown, and neurodiverse children;
- The risks to kids of large-scale personal data collection and advertising models of technology companies; and
- Support for President Biden’s call for strong bipartisan legislation to protect children online in particular, as well as broader legislation that protects the public’s privacy.
Protecting youth mental health, safety, and privacy online is a key component of President Biden’s Unity Agenda – a set of priorities that Americans from every walk of life can support. This listening session will inform the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing efforts to address the harms America’s children and youth face online. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for more information on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Task Force on Kids Online Health and Safety.