Last week, CDT hosted a symposium with an expert group of academics, child safety researchers, digital rights advocates, and government representatives. These experts were convened with the goal of fostering collaboration between research and policy experts toward finding meaningful, research-driven discussions and solutions for protecting children online.
The symposium, held under Chatham House Rule, was structured through discussion roundtables that addressed key topics of online safety for minors. Participants were asked to identify evidence-based policy and technical interventions that can help guide young people toward more age-appropriate online experiences as it pertained to the following themes:
Participants were encouraged to think beyond policy mandates and envision interactions as a whole, including what works well and what needs to change. Below, we highlight some of the key themes that emerged across all groups and discussions.
Connecting Research and Policy
The symposium aimed to bridge the gap between research and policy. Although decades of research findings exist on child safety, translating these findings into actionable policy is not always simple or straightforward. Participants agreed that there is a need for researchers to more actively engage with policymakers and advocates, ensuring that evidence-based insights inform policy decisions.
Throughout the discussion, participants raised several actionable suggestions on how this could be done, such as writing op-eds and submitting research findings to public consultations led by government agencies; publishing research as open-access; and partnering with civil society and legal academics to more effectively shape research findings into policy recommendations.
One researcher suggested that policy experts should do more to highlight when academic research is being used for policy advocacy, “[Policy experts] can amplify when they use our [academic] research. [Researchers] don’t know when their research was helpful for advocacy.”
An Ecosystem of Advocacy
Another central theme was the call for a more collaborative approach to child safety online advocacy. Rather than focusing on individual solutions, participants highlighted the importance of collective action among parents, educators, platform designers, and policymakers. Building coalitions across these groups was seen as essential to moving away from fear-based approaches and toward more balanced, practical policies.
Promoting Healthy Online Environments for Kids
A key theme throughout the symposium was the need to shift away from fear-driven approaches to child safety online. While real risks such as cyberbullying and exposure to harmful content exist, experts agreed that focusing solely on these threats limited the potential to create more empowering and positive digital experiences for children particularly as they enter into adulthood and learn digital skills to set them up for success.
One participant asked, “Can we move beyond the fear based approach to child safety?” This sentiment was echoed throughout the event, as attendees discussed the importance of creating safety measures that proactively foster healthier online environments while relying on the best available evidence.
Future Research and Access to Data
As the symposium came to a close, participants emphasized the need to turn dialogue into action. One recommendation was to conduct “pre-mortems” on proposed safety measures — anticipating potential challenges and unintended consequences before implementation. This proactive approach could help ensure that policies are well-balanced and carefully considered.
Further, a significant barrier to understanding the effectiveness of online safety measures that have already been implemented is the lack of access to comprehensive data. Academic researchers are not well-positioned to study the impact of certain design features or technical interventions at scale as they lack access to critical data that tech companies hold. Throughout the symposium researchers emphasized again and again that companies must provide more access to researchers, and more data about the impact of safety features on users. Even more concerning is that “most of the data companies and other big institutes collect does not include general and validated measures of mental health, loneliness, and well-being. Rather, many datasets focus on usability or opinion polls,” thus leaving blind spots in our understanding of social media and other online platforms and their impacts.
Conclusion
The Child Safety Online Symposium highlighted the urgent need for collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and industry to create an evidence-based digital environment that would be safe for youth and everyone else. While challenges remain — particularly around access to data and the complexity of defining what kids’ experiences online should include — the symposium took a step towards future efforts in this space. By continuing to bridge the gap between research and policy, experts can bring meaningful insights into policy creating safer online spaces.
