July 12, 2022. New report reveals discriminatory international practices on top social media platforms

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Rachel Franz, Fairplay; [email protected]

New report reveals discriminatory international practices on top social media platforms

Report from Fairplay shows children in the US, Australia, South America & Africa have fewer protections than their European peers on TikTok, WhatsApp, and Instagram

BOSTON – Tuesday, July 12, 2022 – New research shows that children around the world have inequitable access to privacy protections and platform terms and conditions on TikTok, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Global Platforms, Partial Protections, a new report from advocacy organization Fairplay, documents how a patchwork of international regulations has created a digital environment in which children from the Global South and elsewhere are exposed to far more manipulative design abuses than children in Europe. 

The report highlights a number of troubling disparities in platform features for young users from 14 different countries including Brazil, Indonesia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. TikTok, for example, offers additional protections for European minors in order to provide “an age-appropriate experience.” Elsewhere, however, young users under 18 are not afforded the same protections, calling into question TikTok’s willingness to provide age-inappropriate design to young people in other countries. 

Each platform also had a range of different minimum age requirements depending on the country despite offering the same services worldwide. 

Based on the information provided by the report, 39 advocacy organizations from 11 countries sent a letter today urging TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to address the design discriminations highlighted in the report.

Growing up with social media, my generation has been the guinea pigs” said Kelsey Wu, a 17-year-old student from California. “Right now we’re at a stage where there are no protections and we are experiencing the negative effects firsthand. It is unfair, especially with breaking data on the harms social media has on the mental health of youth. It’s up to Tech companies to take this seriously, and lawmakers to implement regulations. It gives me hope that design protections for kids have been proposed in California, but it’s unfair for young people in the rest of the country and the rest of the world.” 

In order to remedy the documented inequities, the report recommends that lawmakers enact legislation requiring platforms to implement settings and policies that provide the most protection for young people’s wellbeing and privacy.

“It’s troubling to think that these companies are picking and choosing which young people to give the best safety and privacy protections to. It’s reasonable to expect that once a company had worked out how to make their products a little bit better for kids, they’d roll this out universally for all young people. But once again, social media companies are letting us down and continue to design unnecessary risks into their platforms,” said Rys Farthing, report author and researcher for Fairplay. “Legislators must step in and pass regulations that compel digital service providers to design their products in ways that work for young people. Many jurisdictions around the world are exploring this sort of regulation. In California, the Age Appropriate Design Code which is in front of the state Assembly, could ensure some of these risks are eliminated for young people. Otherwise, you can expect social media companies to offer them second-rate privacy and safety.”

Signatories to the letter sent to TikTok today urging an end to discriminatory practices include Reset (Australia), Red PaPaz (Colombia), 5Rights Foundation (United Kingdom), Africa Digital Rights Hub, and Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

“The findings of the report show that social media companies themselves are deepening inequalities and promoting discrimination between their young users. Not offering children from the Global South the same protections granted to European children is unacceptable. Children are children and deserve special protection regardless of where they are from,” said João Francisco de Aguiar Coelho of the Alana Institute of Brazil, who signed on to the letter.

 

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