Our mission is to protect children and defend parental rights by equipping families and citizens with the tools to keep kids safe online. We oppose government surveillance disguised as child safety legislation and seek to build an informed, independent parent-led coalition to #ProtectKidsOnline.
The "Segregate-and-Suppress" Approach to Regulating Child Safety Online
<div> In an effort to protect children online, regulators around the country and the world are enacting laws that compel Internet publishers to age-authenticat
Ensuring a safer online experience for U.S. kids and teens
An overview of our approach to age assurance and our commitment to online safety for young users and families.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, addresses the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information about children collected from children through websites or other online services.
Online age-verification tools spread across U.S. for child safety, but adults are being surveilled
New age-verification laws and tools are designed for child safety on social media and the internet, but adults are in the crosshairs, say privacy experts.
Kids Online Safety Act
The Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA), known in the House, in some Senate versions, and commonly in the general public as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), is proposed legislation in the United States first introduced in the Senate in 2022. The bill aims to establish guidelines to protect minors from harmful material on social media platforms through a duty of care system and requiring covered platforms to disable "addicting" design features to minors.
Online age verification systems fail to protect children | Proton
Do online age verification systems improve child safety? See how age restrictions and age checks fall short, and what that means for privacy and protection.
The Kids Online Safety Act Will Make the Internet Worse for Everyone
Lawmakers who support KOSA today are choosing to trust the current administration, and future administrations, to define what youth—and to some degree, all of us—should be allowed to read online.
U.S. Social Media Regulations for Minors
The digital lives of American children and teenagers have become a focal point of intense national debate and legislative action. ContentsThe Federal Foundation: The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)The State-Level Surge: A Patchwork of New RulesThe Next Generation of Federal Law: Congress Weighs InThe Constitutional Crossroads: Free Speech vs. State RegulationThe Great Debate: Voices […]
Supreme Court Upholds Age Verification: A Game-Changer for Child Online Safety Laws – Public Interest Privacy Center
Online Safety Bills Are Fueling a New Wave of Internet Censorship
State and federal bills seek to limit minors’ access to social media, but civil liberties advocates warn that the resulting online censorship threatens constitutional rights without delivering real safety.
Coop 1.0: World’s First Free, Open Source Child Safety Infrastructure for Every Platform
Robust Open Online Safety Tools or ROOST is a new non-profit entity designed to address the urgent need for accessible, high-quality safety tools in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Debate: Social media in children and young people – time for a ban? Weighing up the implications and limitations of age-based social media restrictions
Recent legislation in Australia banning social media accounts for children under 16, alongside similar proposals worldwide, has ignited debate about whether age-based restrictions are an effective way to protect young people's mental health. While the intent of such bans is to reduce exposure to harmful content, their feasibility and effectiveness remain unclear. Enforcement requires robust age verification, often relying on sensitive data such as government-issued identification or facial scans, which raises privacy concerns and can be circumvented through the use of VPNs. Moreover, social media use is diverse. Although it can intensify harms such as bullying, it also provides vital opportunities for connection and support, particularly for marginalised adolescents. Removing access to accounts may limit risks within platforms, but does not prevent exposure to harmful content elsewhere, nor does it guarantee increased offline engagement. Importantly, blanket bans fail to address unsafe design features embedded within social media or to equip adolescents with the skills needed to navigate online environments. More targeted, evidence-based regulation that promotes safer platform design and accountability may provide a more effective pathway to protecting young people's well-being.
Children’s Rights and Online Age Assurance Systems
Abstract Age assurance is a way to prevent children accessing content, products or services that are potentially harmful to them, ranging from gambling services or alcohol or tobacco or, increasingly, certain products and services online. Now that children’s lives are mediated by digital technologies, policymakers are deliberating over the legal, technical and practical challenges. These have been little examined from the perspective of children’s rights. By combining legal and social research methods, this article examines the legal requirements for age assurance in Europe, assesses compliance by companies and reveals the consequences for family life. In law and practice, we show that age assurance is often ineffective in protecting children from online risk of harm. Further, as currently implemented it risks children’s other rights – to non-discrimination, privacy, to be heard, and their civil rights and freedoms, and remedy. We identify promising directions for the use of age assurance in child online protection, focusing on European policy, regulators and civil society actors.
Surveillance Self-Defense
We’re the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a member-supported non-profit working to protect online privacy for over thirty-five years. This is Surveillance Self-Defense: our expert guide to protecting you and your friends from online spying. Read the BASICS to find out how online surveillance works. Dive into our TOOL GUIDES for instructions...
Why Protecting Kids from Social Media May Make Things Worse — Douglas Rushkoff
I’m supposed to give a talk next week about kids and social media and the need for more media literacy education, more regulation of platforms, and more substantive discussion about how to keep our kids from media-induced self-harm. The whole event is well-meaning, but is characterized by a sense of worry and protection. And for some reason, after years of making those sorts of arguments in my articles and documentaries, I have a strong impulse to pivot the other way.
What Would Online Age Verification Mean for Speech, Privacy, and Youth Online Safety?