Tech bosses like Mark Zuckerberg from Meta and Linda Yaccarino from X will be speaking in Washington today about kids’ safety online.
Some politicians say big tech isn’t doing enough to protect kids from bad stuff online. They’re talking about making stricter rules and want the big bosses to explain what they’ve done so far. Other tech leaders from TikTok, Discord, and Snap will also be there.
This is the first time some of these bosses, like Linda Yaccarino, are talking to Congress. Linda Yaccarino, Jason Citron from Discord, and Evan Spiegel from Snap got legal orders to be there. Mark Zuckerberg and Shou Zi Chew from TikTok agreed to come on their own.
Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham say parents and kids want action on this.
This meeting is happening after someone who used to work at Meta told Congress that Instagram wasn’t doing enough to protect teens from bad stuff online. Meta said they’ve introduced more than 30 tools to keep teens safe online.
The Senate Judiciary Committee talked about this back in February 2023 too. They agreed that tech companies should be responsible for this. Now, there are new bills like the Kids Online Safety Act, which Snapchat supports.
The committee is worried about things like bad pictures of kids being shared online, even fake ones made by computers. They say there’s more of this happening now. Some tech companies are also dealing with lawsuits about how they handle kids’ accounts.
Microsoft and Google made tools to help platforms find and report bad content to the police. Social media platforms also made changes to make kids safer online. They added things like parental controls and reminders for kids to take breaks from using social media.
Even with all this, politicians and the public still want tech companies to do more to keep kids safe. And that’s what they’re going to talk about today.
(Credit: Based on information from BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-68140296