On Thursday, the United States of America and the United Kingdom unveiled a joint working group to investigate methods for enhancing children’s online safety.
Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce in the United States, and Peter Kyle, Minister of Science and Technology in the United Kingdom, issued a statement at the launch urging tech platforms to go further and faster to protect children.
Instagram and Snapchat, two of the most widely used social media platforms, are already coming under increasing scrutiny for their effects on children. This, the first of its kind by a government across the Atlantic, will only serve to intensify that focus.
Last year, Vivek Murthy, the US Surgeon General, issued a warning that young people who use social media may experience issues with their body image, disordered eating, poor sleep quality, and low self-esteem, particularly among adolescent girls.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Young Children (NSPCC) has released statistics that show that Snapchat was responsible for 43% of cases in Britain where social media was used to distribute indecent images of children.
According to NSPCC research, Meta’s platforms—Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—were utilized in 33 percent of social media-based child abuse crimes.
Snap and Meta, two social media companies, have stated that they have introduced new tools designed to protect teens online, including parental control features, and that they will collaborate with government agencies to safeguard young users.
In recent years, lawmakers in the United States and Britain have worked to impose new restrictions on online platforms.
The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act and the Kids Online Safety Act—also known as Coppa 2.0 and Kosa—have been approved by the Senate in the United States, but the House of Representatives has yet to give their approval.
The Online Safety Act is expected to take effect before the end of 2024 in Britain. By enforcing age limits and age-checking measures, social media companies are required by law to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content, such as pornography.
Under British law, noncompliance could result in fines of up to £18 million ($22.3 million), or 10% of their global annual turnover.
Working with international partners like the United States, one of our closest allies and home to the largest tech companies, is essential in the digital world, Kyle stated.
