Children and Media

On August 18, 2026, OpenAI announced ChatGPT for Teens, promising "stronger built-in safety protections," including parental notifications for dangerous chats, a Study mode that can be controlled by parents, and reduced "friend"-like behavior. We tested more than 4,000 prompts before and after the Teen mode launch and rated ChatGPT an Unacceptable Risk for all children under 18. We call on OpenAI to pause marketing the product and to keep teens off of ChatGPT until it can offer a safe, developmentally appropriate experience.

On June 4, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, seeking comment on “measures the Commission can take…to better protect children when using E-Rate funded networks, including to limit screen time.” In response, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration held a virtual listening session, FCC’s E-Rate and Screen Use NPRM, on September 16, 2026.

Ofcom opened an investigation into whether Meta has failed to comply with its duties under the UK’s Online Safety Act, by not adequately assessing the risks posed by Instagram Instants before it launched. Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, tech firms must assess and mitigate the risk of people in the UK encountering illegal content, and platforms likely to be accessed by children must also assess and mitigate the risk of under

A mother’s viral post criticizing Meta’s AI for compiling details about her young daughters has sparked a debate on what privacy looks like in a future where technology can instantly build dossiers on people by crawling the internet. Kalie Robins, a Utah mom who posts videos about her family’s travels, uploaded a clip of herself singing in the car, her daughter in the background, when she saw a prompt underneath the post asking: “Who’s the child passenger?” Robins thought Meta wanted to verify her daughter’s identity, and she clicked to deny the request.

Rep Michael McCaul (R-TX)—founder and co-chair of the Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus—introduced the 

Reps Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) and Jimmy Patronis (R-FL) introduced the Sunset Section 230 Act, which would repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, making it possible for Americans to bring legal action against big tech companies responsible for online harm. Section 230 was created in 1996 as part of the Communications Decency Act to help encourage innovation and growth among new social media companies, but 30 years later as these companies have become inordinately powerful, Section 230 has become obsolete and dangerous.

TikTok has rejected ads from Meta that call on TikTok and other tech platforms to join Meta in settling with U.S.

In what has been described as social media’s “Big Tobacco moment,” Meta announced a settlement with 47 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico over claims that the company endangered children with intentionally addictive social media platforms.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed landmark bipartisan legislation strengthening California’s nation-leading protections for children online and when using artificial intelligence (AI). The new laws strengthen safeguards for companion chatbots, prohibit social media platforms from offering addictive features to users under 16, and expand privacy protections for children. The bills will protect children by:

After years of studying how human beings write, the cognitive psychologist Ronald T. Kellogg concluded that drafting a basic persuasive essay was as mentally taxing as digging a ditch was physically exhausting. Writing well requires a command of vocabulary, spelling and grammar. It forces writers to comprehend a subject, to sift through their working memory of that topic, to organize and plan. Writing an essay is so difficult that a person in the throes of it can do hardly anything else—as anyone who has shushed a spouse or child while trying to compose a decent sentence can attest.