March 29, 2022
Carson City, NV — Today, Attorney
General Aaron D. Ford announced he has joined a bipartisan coalition of 44
attorneys general in urging TikTok and Snapchat to give parents the ability to
monitor their children’s social media usage and protect their children from
online threats using parental control apps.
“While social media can be entertaining, it can
also have significant negative impacts on our children, especially those who
are too young to understand the risks or how to best protect themselves,” said
AG Ford. “Social media companies need to give parents all the tools they
need to help protect their children, and this includes parental control and
monitoring apps. If they take this step, TikTok and Snapchat can help save
lives and protect the mental health of our children.”
Research increasingly demonstrates the negative
impact that social media can have on the physical, emotional and mental
well-being of children and teenagers. These range from decreased self-esteem
and greater body-image dissatisfaction to increased exposure to cyberbullying
and sexual predation. The Bark
monitoring app reported that in 2021 it had analyzed more than 3.4 billion
messages and found:
- 43.09% of tweens and 74.61% of teens were
involved in a self-harm/suicidal situation;
- 68.97% of tweens and 90.73% of teens
encountered nudity or content of a sexual nature;
- 75.35% of tweens and 93.31% of teens engaged in
conversations surrounding drugs/alcohol;
- 80.82% of tweens and 94.50% of teens expressed
or experienced violent subject matter/thoughts, and;
- 72.09% of tweens and 85.00% of teens
experienced bullying as a bully, victim, or witness.
As the coalition of attorneys general note in
their letter, “Parental control apps can alert parents or schools to messages
and posts on your platforms that have the potential to be harmful and
dangerous. Apps can also alert parents if their child manifests a desire for
self-harm or suicide. On other platforms where these apps are allowed to
operate appropriately parents have received notifications of millions of
instances of severe bullying and hundreds of thousands of self-harm situations,
showing that these apps have the potential to save lives and prevent harm to
our youth.”
Social media platforms already engage in some
content moderation and operate under some community guidelines, but these are
not always sufficient to protect children and teenagers who are particularly
vulnerable to online threats, especially with regard to direct messaging. Parental control apps empower parents to be
full partners with the platforms to maintain a safe space online for their
children.
AG Ford was joined by the attorneys general of
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia,
Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana,
Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota,
Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia,
Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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