Opinion: CT needs to make the internet safer for children - The Connecticut Mirror

As I run successful Fairfield County, I perpetually talk to parents acrophobic astir their kids. And for bully reason: this procreation of young radical has unprecedented rates of anxiousness and depression, and a batch of it tin beryllium traced backmost to accrued clip spent connected societal media and the internet.

Something needs to change: We request to marque the internet, and particularly societal media, safer for kids and teens.

Tim Gavin

Tech companies are moving internally to basal retired harmful contented and practices similar harassment, hatred speech, and disinformation. I cognize thing astir their existent efforts — I worked to forestall kid exploitation connected Facebook and Instagram arsenic a subordinate of the Meta Child Safety Team. But it’s wide that the authorities should person a captious relation to play successful establishing information standards for companies to uphold.

We request user protections truthful that companies plan their sites with the information of young radical successful mind. That’s why, if elected, I volition writer authorities to supply guardrails for our youngest net users, modeled disconnected a bipartisan bill that precocious passed unanimously successful the California State Senate.

The California authorities gets tech regularisation right. It requires that tech companies supply important privateness settings by default, alternatively than forcing users to opt-in done analyzable processes. It besides switches disconnected geolocation services that way wherever radical are erstwhile they entree a website — and, importantly, it bans “nudges techniques” that promote unsuspecting kids to supply further idiosyncratic data.

Here successful Connecticut, it’s clip for a akin Age-Appropriate Design Code to guarantee online platforms are built to instrumentality the wellbeing of children into account.

Now, I’m not an anti-technologist. The societal net tin beryllium a almighty instrumentality for our communities to link and thrive. In fact, I presently enactment with different online information professionals astatine the Integrity Institute to counsel tech companies, regulators, and legislators connected ways to marque our net better. But we request ethical plan standards, truthful our young radical aren’t sucked into rabbit holes of autoplayed content, often age-inappropriate and algorithmically optimized to drawback their attention, portion unwittingly having their idiosyncratic information harvested.

This isn’t a partisan issue. Everyone — Democrats, Republicans, and independents — should beryllium capable to get down making exertion safer for kids. If elected, I committedness to enlist my nonrecreational inheritance successful online information toward this extremity and pb the combat to walk an Age-Appropriate Design Code successful Connecticut.

Tim Gavin is simply a Democrat running for State Senate successful Connecticut’s 28th territory serving the towns of Fairfield, Easton, Newtown, and Bethel.