Hand parents the keys to teen online safety
by Matt Adams
As a father, I have a responsibility to protect my family. Our adversaries come in many forms, but in recent years, it is the poisonous content that makes its way onto children’s phones that gives me concern. Parents across the nation understand all too well the consequences of overexposure to digital devises and acknowledge that keeping inappropriate material off our kids’ screens starts with common-sense policies that put us parents at the forefront of our children’s online experience.
According to a poll by the Pew Research center, 96 percent of our youth say they use the web everyday. This is generally a good thing – as online education and vocational resources allow our youth more and more opportunities to pursue their passions and career goals. It also speaks to the great strides we’ve made to bridge the digital divide and ensure our youth are one day able to compete in the global marketplace.
Unfortunately, policies around online parental control have not kept pace with this rising internet accessibility. While many states like North Carolina have sought to address this issue, many remain concerned that a state-by-state approach would only make it more difficult for patents to navigate the technical nuances associated with youth app verification.
Herein lies the legislative challenge parents should communicate with their elected officials. Any policy aimed at protecting our children from online harm must start by handing parents the keys to determine what content is age appropriate. This concept preserves parents’ fundamental right to serve as a moral compass for their children while bypassing any bureaucracy that could impede a parent’s decision as to what app a minor can use.
We must also recognize that congressional action at the federal level is best suited to provide parents with the systematic tools to monitor their kids online. Rather than putting politically driven lawmakers and regulators in the driver’s seat, federal legislation can acknowledge the innate responsibility all American parents have to protect our families. Nearly 80 percent of parents support legislation that sets up parental control of online app downloads. Lawmakers on both the left and the right also have shown support for an all-in-one approach to a workable parental app approval system, and we must leverage this bipartisanship to spur real, tangible change.
Fostering healthier online experiences for teens is also contingent on the standardization and simplicity of the parental app approval system at the app store-level. Good intentions are not enough to ensure parents have the technical wherewithal they need as primary arbiters of this process. Legislation should require app stores to produce an easy-to-use age verification and parental consent system before an app can ever downloaded for a minor. Any parent, regardless of their technical proficiency, should feel emboldened to use online parental controls.
What’s more, Congress is equipped to work alongside app stores who have already developed age verification controls to establish further transparency over the teen online experience. Many parents know that app stores already give them the option to utilize content supervision controls for kids under 16. Common-sense legislation should require that these settings be installed on every minor’s device, placing shared responsibility between app stores and parents to ensure kids can use the internet in a safe and productive way.
As our elected officials craft policies around teen online safety, they should acknowledge that empowered parents will be their most indispensable allies and responsible enforcers. But we can only play this role If the tools provided to us are effective, simple, and streamlined. We owe it to our children to keep them safe – both off and online.
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