The Social Media Senate Hearing & More
Last Wednesday there was a senate judiciary committee hearing where the CEOs of Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, Discord and X were brought in to testify.
Here’s what happened:
There was bipartisan agreement that:
digital safety is an urgent issue.
tech companies aren’t doing enough
There was also some acknowledgement in the room that the legislators themselves admit they haven’t done enough. No federal bills have been passed to date.
There were a number of parents of children who had tragic outcomes from social media present. They were vocal, sometimes laughing at the responses from the CEOs. Their presence was a real part of the proceedings.
Some CEOs tried to show some signs of accountability:
Meta and Snapchat both apologized to the parents in the room for what they’ve gone through
Snapchat disclosed the number of teen and parent accounts that are using their parental controls
X and Snapchat stated support the online kids safety act
But also, there was some CEO pushback.
Namely, Meta was insistent that parental controls should be at the google/apple level not the app level
My $0.02 on the hearing
Some of the CEO’s expressing some level of accountability is better than none at all.
It is true that Legislators, Operating Systems and parents do have some responsibility. But Tech has more.
While Zuck is not wrong that much can be done at the operating system level including things like time management. But good, intuitive parental controls at the app level are SO important. As are training algorithms, investing in content moderation and generally building with social responsibility in mind.
It is super frustrating that no online safety bills have been passed. I would love to see the age of consent raised at least to 14 or 15 and I would love for apps to have to legally verify ages rather than take it on the honor system.
I think parents know how much work digital parenting is. To parents I say, you shouldn’t have to do this alone, legislators and tech companies should be better partners. But in the meantime, trust your instincts, err on the side of caution and prioritizing digital safety as you parent your teens and tweens.
Bonus item for the week: a review of Snapchat’s new ad.
I realize the crossover between senate hearing watchers and Grammy watchers is probably pretty small. (Like it literally might just be me!) But Sunday, 4 days after the hearing, Snap launched a new ad campaign at the Grammys. Watch it here
Now, I did notice that many headlines downplayed or omitted details about Snap’s cooperation during the hearing and I didn’t think that was fair. I saw headlines that only mentioned Zuck apologizing, only mentioned X was in favor of the Online Kids Safety Act or never mentioned that Snap was the only CEO to share data about the number of accounts using parental control. So I started the weekend feeling somewhat sympathetic.
But then I watched the ad. In it they really make a point to separate themselves from the rest of social media. And yet, I don’t know anyone doesn’t automatically think of Snapchat when asked about social media. Just to be sure I decided to ask some teens what they thought.
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