Design It For Us Statement on Unveiling of New Parental Control Bill

Design it For Us co-chair Zamaan Qureshi released the following statement:

“As advocates for making social media and online platforms safer for kids, teens and young adults, we’re encouraged that lawmakers are increasingly taking Big Tech’s profit-driven harm seriously, but today’s introduction of a parental control bill and mandatory age verification bill from Sens. Schatz, Britt, Murphy and Cotton misses the mark of what young people need to be safe online.

We call on Senators and Members of Congress to follow the lead of lawmakers who have implemented age appropriate design codes that prioritize safety by product design and default. We believe that any legislation addressing harm on social media should put the onus on companies to make their platforms safer, instead of preventing kids and teens from being on platforms at all. As college students who grew up with social media accounts since middle school, we know that age verification, parental surveillance and platform policing don’t address the harm that young people experience online. Instead, these tactics let Big Tech companies off the hook and only exacerbate the mental health challenges kids and teens are facing online.

As legislation like this is introduced, we’re eager to provide our partnership and our personal experience to better inform legislation. We can work together to establish the most effective social media legislation when it is intentionally informed by our generation each step of the way.”

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