Children and Media

The Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security convened a hearing to hear from former Facebook employee Frances Haugen. Recent Wall Street Journal investigations have revealed troubling insights regarding how Instagram affects teenagers, how it handles children onto the platform, and other consumer protection matters related to Facebook. In prepared testimony, Haugen said:

Students who lacked the home internet connectivity needed to finish schoolwork while virtually learning at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic – an experience often called the “homework gap” – may continue to feel the effects in the 2021-2022 school year.

After the Senate’s session with Facebook global head of safety Antigone Davis on September 30, close observers think bipartisan outrage may finally be strong enough for Congress to crack down on Facebook and its peers. “Facebook has given lawmakers and regulators an invaluable political opening to begin restructuring how it can do business, in terms of research, advertising and data use,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Digital Democracy.

Sens Edward Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep Kathy Castor (D-FL) reintroduced the Kids Internet Design and Safety (KIDS) Act (S.2918) to stop online practices such as manipulative marketing, amplification of harmful content, and damaging design features, which threaten young people online.

Facebook has come under increasing fire for its effect on young users and its efforts to create products for them. Inside the company, teams of employees have for years been laying plans to attract preteens that go beyond what is publicly known, spurred by fear that Facebook could lose a new generation of users critical to its future. The company formed a team to study preteens, set a three-year goal to create more products for them and commissioned strategy papers about the long-term business opportunities presented by these potential users.

Do you have concerns about whether students and families in your community or school have adequate, consistent access to the internet and digital devices?

The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the deep digital divide in Mexico and the enormous challenge faced by its education system in continuing to educate the country's students while under confinement.

The digital divide in education that was exposed by remote learning during the pandemic is likely to persist even when students return to classrooms, advocates warn. While efforts are underway to provide students with adequate internet access, advocates say the problem is unlikely to go away in the fall because remote learning will not completely go away when in-person classes resume. Advocates say that closing the digital divide requires building out infrastructure. Amina Fazlullah, director of equity policy at Common Sense Media, said infrastructure spending is needed to help bridge the d

School by Screen | School systems in America are not done with remote learning. They want more of it. School systems across the country are looking at remote learning as a way to meet diverse needs — for teenagers who have jobs, children with certain medical conditions, or kids who prefer learning virtually. It has also emerged as a way to expand access to less-common courses. If one high school offers a class in Portuguese, students at another school could join it remotely.

Schools were working well before the pandemic to address the challenges presented by the digital divide, which disproportionately affects Black, Latino, and Native American students and those in low-income households. The shift to distance learning dramatically raised the stakes. Schools had to take a lead because the federal government has failed to make internet available and affordable, said Blair Levin, an Obama-era Federal Communications Commission official.“The schools were so stressed,” Levin said. “It was not easy. It was a big burden.”