Meta’s $17.1bn Child Safety Settlement Sparks Global Warning: Money Alone Won’t Protect Children Online
Meta’s $17.1 billion settlement for the effects of its platforms on children’s mental health has brought attention to the need for more robust and enforceable measures to protect children from social media.
The settlement, which was reached with a California court, has raised worldwide discussion of the duty of tech companies to keep children safe online. Child rights groups, however, say that financial compensation is not enough to ensure children’s rights are protected in the long term without a clear child rights framework.
A child rights approach would involve technology companies acknowledging children as rights-holders and taking into account their safety, wellbeing, development and participation in the design and operation of digital platforms.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child offers a global standard for safeguarding children against harmful information and for their right to health and development. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights also mandate that businesses identify, prevent and remediate potential human rights harms associated with their activities.
This is because for child protection, this should not be restricted to children in the United States. Children in various countries face the same online risks as technology companies are global.
Human rights have also been emphasized as a precondition for the introduction of new features, experts have said. Businesses need to evaluate the potential impact of products on children, and then be open and honest about the risks and track the impact following deployment.
Children and parents should also be able to have a meaningful role in decisions that impact their online safety, including decisions that may be more likely to impact them.
The settlement is thus a warning and an opportunity: Compensation is not enough to protect children online. It needs to be at the heart of technology design, and standards that are enforceable, transparent and child rights-based.
