Social networks defend their strategies before the US Senate

TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube testified before the United States Senate, where they shared their strategy on the services offered to children and adolescents who use their social networks and the measures they adopt to guarantee a safe and healthy environment, while at the same time used to advance some of the work being done in this area.

The United States Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing with representatives from three of the most popular youth apps, TikTok, YouTube, and Snap, to see how they treat their audience, from algorithm design to services that they offer and that can damage and intrude on the privacy of users.

The hearing, held under the title: “Protecting Children Online: Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube“, was attended by the Vice President of Global Public Policy at Snap, Jennifer Stout; Vice President and Director of Public Policy for the Americas at TikTok, Michael Beckerman; and YouTube Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy Leslie Miller.

Senators are aware that social media offers educational and entertainment opportunities to children and adolescents. But “they have been misused to harm children and promote destructive acts, such as school vandalism, deadly viral challenges, harassment, eating disorders, manipulative influence marketing and sexual harassment“, as stated in the hearing.

The representatives took advantage of their respective speeches to advance some of the work they are doing on the welfare and protection of minors. This is the case of YouTube, which develops a parental function that specifically blocks automatic playback on YouTube Kids, along with other additional controls, which will be introduced “in the coming months.”

K. Tovar

Source: Voz de América