36 million reasons to protect kids online
Until recently, avoidance was my solution to keeping my young children safe from the perils and predators of social media.
If we didn’t have electronic devices at home, I theorized, my kids could sidestep the negative influences and the dangers of social media platforms. We would read books, talk with each other more and engage in quality creative play.
It worked out well in my head. In reality, my kids have friends in grade school with iPhones, some with parental controls, some without.
As today’s kids scroll through TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat, I know there is little to keep them safe from predators, bullies, traffickers, stalkers and others wanting to do them harm — or those encouraging children to harm themselves. As parents, many of us don’t understand the depths of darkness that lurk online and how algorithms help them entice our little ones.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children last year received over 36 million reports of “suspected child sexual exploitation online” with a 300% increase in “online enticement” from 2021 to 2023.
You would think there would be tough legislation in place to protect our children, but there isn’t.
“There isn’t one industry in which children have a huge real estate that we are not regulating or over-regulating, except in the online world,” said Rania Mankarious, CEO of Crime Stoppers of Houston.
Last month’s congressional hearings on kids’ online safety offered some hope that regulations are imminent. The CEOs of social media giants (Meta, TikTok, Discord, X and Snap) were grilled by lawmakers. Also, in attendance were families who claimed Instagram contributed to their children’s exploitation and, in one case, suicide.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to the parents: “I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through. It’s terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.”
Even a month after the contentious exchanges between legislators and social mediamedia CEOs, we are no closer to safety regulations that protect our kids.
In Texas, House Bill 18 would require social media companies and other sites to protect teenagers from “physical, emotional, and developmental harm” and give parents more ways to control and monitor how their children use the platform. In Congress, the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act is also designed to help protect children online, but it has come under fire by the ACLU and other groups claiming the bill will do more censoring, particularly of LGBTQ content, than provide safety for children. Social media companies aren’t in a rush to regulate because increasing safety will restrict usage and likely decrease views and revenue, Mankarious said.
“The idea was to regulate the five giants (Meta, TikTok, Discord, X and Snap) so that they will not allow any content on their platforms that is pornographic and perpetuates the abuse of children, the sale of pills, which can be laced with fentanyl, and display other dangerous content that impacts children’s mental health,” she said.
If they do, how will the companies be held accountable? That’s another issue.
While we wait for laws to be put into place, parents need to be more diligent about their children’s activity on social media.
Conversations about using social-media safety should start as early as 7 or 8 to teach them how to make safe choices online and understand the dangers without scaring them. Crime Stoppers offers tips for parents and resource guides, and also works with schools to educate students and teachers.
Social media isn’t the devil. In January, I finally bought our first iPad loaded with a bunch of educational apps.
Then I told myself to just breathe.