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Smartphone usage in the two countries is ‘nearly universal’ with a majority of teenagers using social media platforms.
The US and UK governments issued a join statement yesterday (10 October), announcing a children’s online safety working group aimed at making the internet safer for minors while advocating for increased transparency from online platforms.
Smartphone ownership is “near universal” among teenagers in the US and the UK, with more than 60pc of teens aged 13-17 in the two countries using TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram and 90pc using YouTube. Almost 40pc of children aged 8-13 in the US and 63pc of children aged 8-11 in UK report using social media.
“As more children across the US and around the globe have access to online platforms for online learning and social media, there is also increased risk to this exposure,” said US secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo.
“That is why we are taking the necessary steps in the US, and with our UK partners, to protect children’s privacy, safety and mental health,”
In the joint statement, the two countries said that they will work with national institutions and organisations to ensure that internet users have the skills and resources they need to make safe and informed choices online.
Online platforms, including social media companies “have a moral responsibility to respect human rights and put in place additional protections for children’s safety and privacy”, the statement reads.
Additional protections, including age-appropriate safeguards, include measures that prevent sexual exploitation, abuse, harassment and cyberbullying and abusive content or content that promotes harm.
Online safety should be “baked in from the outset, not as an afterthought”, said UK technology secretary Peter Kyle. “This joint statement will turn our historic partnership towards delivering a safer online world for our next generation.”
The UK Online Safety Act places duties on online platforms to protect children’s safety, including ‘effective’ privacy-preserving, age-assurance technologies to prevent children from encountering harmful content.
While the US recently approved the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, creating a “duty of care” for digital platforms, forcing them to take extra steps to protect children from harmful content online.
The US has also gone on the offensive with social media platforms recently. A few days ago, 14 state attorneys general filed a number of lawsuits against the social media platform TikTok for allegedly harming children’s mental health.
Schools in the UK have voluntarily chosen to restrict smartphone usage in schools, which Kyle described as a win, according to the BBC.
While nearby, the EU asked YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok what they are doing to analyse and address the risks to minors on their platforms.
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