Study Investigates Differences in Parent Approaches to Children’s Online Activities

Justin Hendrix is CEO and Editor of Tech Policy Press. Shutterstock A wave of child online safety legislation is sweeping the United States. Some laws, such as the California Age Appropriate Design Code Bill, address design and privacy concerns, putting the onus on the platforms to make their products safe for children. Laws in other states, often led by Republicans, put more emphasis on the role of parents. One example of the latter is Utah’s SB0152, known as the Utah Social Media Regulation Act. The law, which passed in March, requires that tech firms verify the age of users, requires companies to get parental consent for a child to have a social media account, and puts other restrictions on accounts held by minors, such as prohibitions on direct messaging, advertising, and the collection of personal data. The law enacts a social media curfew between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., unless that restriction is adjusted by a parent or guardian. And, perhaps most controversially, the law gives parents and guardians the right to access a minor’s account, including direct messages.  Even as lawmakers introduce such measures, there remain unanswered questions about the role that parents can play in mediating the safety of children online, and the factors that affect how parents in different circumstances recognize and approach the problem in the first place. For instance, to what extent are parents prepared to mediate their children’s online affairs at all? How do parental strategies with regard to social media differ, and how…Study Investigates Differences in Parent Approaches to Children’s Online Activities