Identifying Risks and Benefits to Kids’ Health, Safety, and Privacy from Their Use of Online Platforms: An Overview of Task Force Finding
Helping Kids Thrive Online: Health, Safety, & Privacy
Given the complex and multifaceted relationship among health, safety, privacy, and online technology, the Task Force relied on stakeholder listening sessions and other information-gathering efforts, including a formal request for information to the public, reviews of existing research, and expert input in the Task Force subcommittees (described in the Appendix) to enhance understanding of the risks and benefits to young people’s health, safety, and privacy. To ensure the robust development of guidance, the Task Force brought together different groups with a diversity of opinions and experiences to inform efforts.
A summary of online harms and benefits to children is outlined below, with separate focus areas based on the impact to health, safety, and privacy, although these categories often overlap. The Task Force found that developmental processes throughout childhood and adolescence, such as identity development and exploration, and relationship formation, can be both enhanced and undermined by interaction with content from online platforms. This impact depends on the characteristics of the individual youth and the specific attributes of the online platforms they use.
While more research is necessary to fully understand the impact of online platforms on youth, on a review of the existing research, the Task Force identified a variety of health, safety, and privacy risks to youth related to online platform use, including problematic or excessive use, cyberbullying, bias and discrimination, child sexual exploitation, and privacy violations.
A note on the research summarized below: Given the ubiquity of digital devices, youth typically have their first interactions online before adolescence. However, the vast majority of research conducted assessing the harms and benefits of youth online focuses on adolescents. This may be due to several reasons. Many online platforms prohibit the use of their services by children under the age of 13 in their terms of service—although many children still access these platforms. These platforms typically do not allow users to indicate that they are under 13, which limits the potential data available for research involving kids under 13. For researchers looking to collect data about children interacting with online platforms, federal and some state privacy laws limit the collection and sharing of certain information about individuals under the age of 13. This may affect researchers’ ability to collect data directly from children as well as different platforms’ willingness to allow researchers to create mechanisms for such data collection.24 25
Health
The impact of the use of online platforms on young people’s health has been a focus of significant research and policy deliberation in recent years.
Safety
Youth face a multitude of safety issues and associated harms online: they range from cyberbullying and online harassment, to encouraging self-harm, to grooming and child sexual exploitation.
Privacy
Privacy in the digital space is important for positive youth development, allowing them to develop autonomy, learn critical thinking skills, and build trust.
24 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, 15 U.S.C. 6501–6505 Children's Privacy.
25 California regulations protecting data about minors under the age of 16, ARTICLE 6.