Alex Ambrose

The Australian government announced on November 8, 2024, its intention to introduce legislation this year banning users under 16 from social media platforms. As is the case with similar legislation at the state level in the United States, blocking an entire age group from social media is the equivalent of using a regulatory sledgehammer instead of a scalpel to address complex and evolving online safety issues.

Given the uncertainties surrounding the emotional and social impact of AI companions—both positive and negative—policymakers should prioritize funding research on how users interact with chatbots. This approach would ensure that any interventions or improvements are grounded in scientific evidence, rather than rushed regulation.

Congress should pass an amended version of the NO FAKES Act that preempts all existing and future state digital likeness laws. This would ensure consistent IP protections for all Americans—including performers—support innovation in entertainment, and prevent a patchwork of state digital replica laws.

Senators Katie Britt (R-AL) and John Fetterman (D-PA) introduced the Stop the Scroll Act, which would require warning labels on social media platforms about potential mental health risks. However, the proposal is flawed due to the lack of scientific consensus linking social media to mental health harms and the ineffectiveness of pop-up warnings, which are often ignored by users, especially children.

Children play a crucial role in driving adoption of immersive technologies—and parents, corporations, and regulators all have roles to play in balancing privacy and safety concerns to ensure they can enjoy safe, engaging, and innovative experiences.

To save you a trip to the library or bookstore, this list includes not just books we recommend for policy wonks and the general public alike, but also books we do not recommend.

Digital identity should play a key role in shaping the governance structures in immersive technologies and NIST is well placed to lead this charge.

The U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published a New York Times op-ed arguing that social media poses such a threat to children’s mental health that these platforms should come with a warning label like cigarettes and alcohol. However, his argument is flawed on multiple levels: There is no scientific consensus that social media is causing mental health issues among youth; social media use among youth does not present a similar level of risk as tobacco and alcohol use; and the alleged risks of social media come from interaction with specific types of content, not from the platforms themselves.

Age-appropriate design codes come from a noble place—the desire to protect children—but have serious flaws and threaten to do more harm than good. Instead of ID-based age verification, Congress should require device makers and platforms hosting age-restricted content to establish a “child flag” system—so everyone is assumed to be an adult unless they are marked as a child.

Given that more than 19 states are in the process of implementing digital IDs, Oklahoma serves as a cautionary tale on the importance of building accessibility into the system from the beginning.

Though the ways consumers access entertainment have changed, the laws protecting children in the space have not. The time is ripe to update laws to better reflect the changing media landscape by expanding coverage to protect child social media influencers (“kidfluencers”).

Join ITIF for a panel discussion on children's online safety legislation and the roles that parents, corporations, and regulators must play in shaping the future of children’s digital experiences.

Watch now for the fourth annual AR/VR Policy Conference presented by Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the XR Association.

Watch now for an expert panel discussion exploring the positive potential of technological innovation to transform society for the better by increasing accessibility for all.