{"id":11387,"date":"2024-01-31T17:22:36","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T17:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugandaupdatenews.com\/?p=11387"},"modified":"2024-01-31T17:22:42","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T17:22:42","slug":"uganda-lawmakers-should-act-as-usa-congress-says-kids-arent-safe-on-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowebinhost.com\/anzu\/uganda-lawmakers-should-act-as-usa-congress-says-kids-arent-safe-on-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda Lawmakers Should Act As USA Congress Says Kids Aren\u2019t Safe On Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

. USA Tech CEOs are back in DC to pledge (again) that they\u2019ll handle it<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Our International <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correspondent <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA Congress grilled the chief executives of several big USA tech companies this week, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, about potential harms from their products on teens. Until now, the social platforms have largely had the same response: We\u2019ll help teens and families make smart decisions themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Africa its even worse as there are no deliberate measures and regulations barring children from accessing adult content on their phones or learning gadgets like cheap tablet computers. Child safety advocates in Uganda have previously reported that children are exposed to unwanted nudity , outright pornography and criminal advances by adults for sex .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, in USA there is growing claims that social media can hurt young users, including worries that it risks driving them to depression or even suicide, online safety advocates say that response falls far short. And with a presidential election looming \u2014 and state lawmakers stealing the spotlight from their federal counterparts \u2014 Congress is set to press tech companies to go beyond the tools they\u2019ve rolled out in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chief executives of TikTok, Snap, Discord and X are set to testified alongside Zuckerberg at Wednesday\u2019s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. For some, including X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Discord CEO Jason Citron, Wednesday\u2019s hearing marked their first-ever testimony in front of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the tech CEOs are likely to use Wednesday\u2019s hearing to tout tools and policies to protect children and give parents more control over their kids\u2019 online experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some companies, such as Snap and Discord, told the media they plan to distance themselves from the likes of Meta by emphasizing they do not focus on serving users algorithmically recommended content in potentially addictive or harmful\u00a0<\/strong>ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, parents and online safety advocacy groups say many of the tools released by social media platforms don\u2019t go far enough \u2014 largely leaving the job of protecting teens up to parents and, in some cases, the young users themselves \u2014 and that tech platforms can no longer be left to self-regulate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat the committee needs to do is to push these executives to commit to major changes, especially to disconnect their advertising and marketing systems from services that are known to attract and target youth,\u201d said Jeff Chester, executive director of online consumer protection nonprofit the Center for Digital Democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the proliferation of generative artificial intelligence tools \u2014 which can give bad actors\u00a0new ways to create and spread malicious content<\/a>\u00a0on social media \u2014 only raises the stakes for ensuring tech platforms have safety features built in by default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are the kids alright?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Several major platforms \u2014 including Meta, Snapchat, Discord and TikTok \u2014 have rolled out oversight tools that allow parents to link their accounts to their teens\u2019 to get information about how they\u2019re using the platforms and have some control over their experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, also introduced \u201ctake a break\u201d reminders or screentime limits for teens and tweaked their algorithms<\/a> to avoid sending teens down rabbit holes of harmful content, such as self harm or eating disorder media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month Meta announced a proposed\u00a0blueprint for federal legislation<\/a>\u00a0calling for app stores, not social media companies, to verify users\u2019 ages and enforce an age minimum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meta also unveiled a\u00a0slew of new youth safety efforts<\/a>\u00a0that included hiding \u201cage-inappropriate content\u201d such as posts discussing self-harm and eating disorders from teens\u2019 Instagram\u00a0feeds and stories; prompting teens to turn on more restrictive security settings on its apps; a \u201cnighttime nudge\u201d that encourages teen users to stop scrolling on Instagram late at night; and changing teens\u2019 default privacy settings to restrict people they don\u2019t follow or aren\u2019t connected to from sending them direct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online safety experts say that some of the new updates, such as restrictions on adult strangers messaging teens, are welcome changes, but that others still put too much pressure on parents to keep their kids safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some also say the fact that it has taken platforms years, in some cases, to make relatively basic safety updates is a sign the companies can no longer be trusted to regulate themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t have taken a decade of predators grooming children<\/a> on Instagram<\/a>, it shouldn\u2019t have taken massively embarrassing \u2026 lawsuits, it shouldn\u2019t have taken Mark Zuckerberg being hauled before Congress next week,\u201d for Meta and other platforms to make such changes, said Josh Golin, executive director of nonprofit children\u2019s safety group Fairplay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For their part, Meta and other platforms have said they\u2019re aiming to walk a fine line: trying to keep young users safe without too strongly imposing views about what content is or isn\u2019t appropriate for them to view,<\/s>\u00a0and instead aiming to empower parents to make those judgment calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As efforts to rein in tech platforms have ground to a standstill on Capitol Hill, much of the momentum for regulating social media has picked up outside the halls of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years,\u00a0Arkansas<\/a>,\u00a0Louisiana<\/a>,\u00a0Ohio<\/a>,\u00a0Utah<\/a>, and others have passed laws restricting social media for teens, in many cases by establishing a minimum age for social media use or by requiring a tech platform to obtain parental consent before creating accounts for minors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor:msserwanga@gmail.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. 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