For families in every corner of Missouri, from St. Louis to Springfield to Cape Girardeau, the digital world is no longer a separate part of life, it’s the landscape where our children play, learn, and grow. But this digital frontier, once promised as a space for connection, is filled with unforeseen dangers, turning a tool for friendship into a source of pressure and mental distress for our kids.
The familiar risks of social media are now being supercharged by the unchecked race for artificial intelligence dominance. Tech giants are deploying sophisticated new AI products, including chatbots designed to engage with young users. Facebook allegedly used explicit material to train its AI, and the company has failed to do adequate research on the threat to children their own products present. This is a consistent and serious issue where Facebook continues to prioritize engagement over the well-being of our children.
This pattern of behavior makes one conclusion inescapable. Facebook, TikTok, and other bad actors have forfeited their claim to self-regulation where child safety is concerned. While Washington debates, families in Missouri need solutions now. This urgency has thankfully captured the attention of lawmakers in Jefferson City but so has the powerful lobbying arm of the very companies that created the problem.
In a calculated move to sidestep genuine accountability, Facebook has promoted a seemingly simple fix, requiring age checks in app stores before underage users can download certain potentially harmful apps. But Missourians should ask a simple question: if this plan is about protecting children, why is it being pushed with a multi-million-dollar lobbying effort? The truth is that this proposal is a public relations strategy designed to protect corporate interests, not our kids.
So, while Facebook’s plan sounds like an easy, effective fix to keep kids safe, the devil is the details. A child can easily sidestep an age gate placed on app stores and access the very same platforms through a web browser on any device, a phone, a tablet, a family computer, or a gaming system. This makes Facebook’s plan effectively useless. It’s a security fence with the gate wide open, offering the illusion of safety without any real protection. Additionally, these age verification systems force app stores to share a litany of private information with social media companies. In doing so, lawmakers risk handing even more of children’s sensitive data over to the very companies they want to protect kids from.
Facebook and their lobbyists, of course, know all of this. Under their plan, children remain in jeopardy, and parents are the real losers. The only winners are the Big Tech companies pumping harmful content to kids.
There are, of course, methods to protect children online. In Mississippi, for example, lawmakers flipped Facebook’s proposal to put the onus on content providers. This solution closes the loopholes opened by Facebook’s proposal and stops children from accessing harmful content through a web browser.
Additionally, an effective strategy shouldn’t just focus on the doorway. It must address the dangers inside the room. The fundamental issue lies with the content and design of these platforms. Lawmakers in Missouri can take steps, like mandating age-appropriate design, setting strict limits on the collection of minors’ data, and providing parents with meaningful control over their kids’ digital experiences, that would comprehensively change children’s online experience for the better. We have safety standards for nearly every other product marketed to children, from car seats to crayons. It’s time we demanded the same for the powerful digital products that shape their lives.
Missouri’s children deserve a digital world designed for their safety and well-being. Missouri’s parents need more than hollow gestures; they need real authority. The lawmakers we elected to represent us in Jefferson City have the opportunity and the obligation to deliver meaningful reform, not deceptive loopholes.
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Travis Smith is a father, a former state legislator, and a former coach. He is from West Plains, Missouri
Father, a former state legislator, and a former coach. He is from West Plains, Missouri
