Big Tech is preying on children for profit, and Congress needs to stop it

Our children are up against a lot in their lives, as they learn to navigate the world around them. I contend that their most powerful foe is Big Tech.

Children are being marketed to, preyed upon and used for profit by technology companies.

Research from the Parents Television and Media Council, where I am vice president, reveals that Hollywood is marketing television shows with explicit adult content to young teens through social media apps such as TikTok and Instagram, which are popular with 13 to 17-year-olds. We are talking about programs such as “Euphoria,” “Sex Education” and “PEN15,” which carry TV-MA ratings and are not for children or teens. Social media is being used to get around parents and directly to children with this content.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, continues to be revealed by media outlets, whistleblowers and lawsuits as fueling child sexual exploitation, providing a platform for pedophiles, and enabling sexually explicit and other harmful content that targets teens, especially teen girls. Meta has been sued by the District of Columbia and 41 states, which claim its products are addictive and potentially harmful to children and their mental health.

Other social media platforms are no better. Snapchat has been used to “lure and sexually exploit children.” The New York Times reported last year that X has struggled to confront its child sexual exploitation problem. Parents are suing Roblox over sexual content on its platform.

Naturally, we can follow the money. A new study by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health revealed that “social media companies collectively made over $11 billion in U.S. advertising revenue from minors in 2022.”

Yes, you read that correctly. Big Tech is making billions of dollars facilitating this marketing toward and exploitation of children.

Unfortunately for families, Big Tech’s targeting of children is leading to dire consequences. The U.S. surgeon general has warned about the mental health crisis among America’s youth and about the harm that social media can have on them. Children are vulnerable to influences they see online, and the impact of that content can even be life-threatening.

Teens and their parents are up against the powerful tech industry and algorithms that deluge the user and offer no escape.

Big Tech has resisted prioritizing child protection, even though these companies know there are problems. Some offer parental controls, but the very idea of parental controls puts all the burden of protection on parents, not on the social media companies that design and build these platforms.

Meta appears to finally be taking child protection more seriously by automatically putting minor accounts in more restrictive settings. It recently announced that it would “automatically restrict teen Instagram and Facebook accounts from harmful content, including videos and posts about self-harm, graphic violence, and eating disorders,” and that “teens under 16 won’t be shown sexually explicit content,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

But these are safety measures that Meta should have implemented from the start, without the public pressure, lawsuits and harm already been done to our children.

Ultimately, Congress must step in to ensure that tech companies prioritize child safety.

Among the possible measures before Congress is the Kids Online Safety Act, designed to hold social media companies accountable and establish a duty of care for protecting children online; the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, which expands privacy protections to teens and for children under age 13; the EARN IT Act, which would ensure that technology platforms protect children from child sexual abuse material; and other legislation that serves children and families instead of Big Tech interests.

President Biden has called on tech leaders to ensure that children are protected from online content “that threatens their mental health and safety.”

It is not enough to stand back and keep hoping that Big Tech companies will do more, be better or act more responsibly. It is in our nation’s interest to protect future generations while they are still young. Congress must hold these companies accountable.

Melissa Henson is the vice president of the Parents Television and Media Council, a nonpartisan education organization advocating responsible entertainment.