Gatekeeping Screen Time: Configuring the Regulation of Addictive Technologies and Kids' Privacy Rights 

Abstract

We all, and especially our kids, spend many hours on screens. Many current studies uncover the harms of excessive screen time for kids. In reaction, legislatures in many states, as well as Congress, advanced laws to protect kids from addictive technologies. The tech industry, whose revenues depend on extending users’ time online, reacted by raising freedom of speech claims to repeal these laws. Through hijacking the debate and focusing it on the First Amendment, tech companies obstructed the real issue at stake -- how can legislatures most effectively regulate addictive technologies to reduce kids’ screen time?

This Article analyzes the legislative landscape to provide the answer to this question. It reveals that while different in their mechanisms, the laws converge into two models. Each model embraces different conceptions of who should be the gatekeeper of kids’ screen time on social media, games and other online platforms. One model – The Tech Liability Model – places the responsibility directly on tech companies. The Second model – The Parent Gatekeeper Model – places the responsibility on parents, by requiring tech companies to provide parents tools to block or monitor kids’ online.

This Article argues that the Tech Liability Model, is essential to successfully regulate addictive technologies and reduce kids’ screen time. First, it explains that the Parent Gatekeeper Model risks shifting responsibility from the party to blame – the tech companies – to parents. Second, it cautions that years of experience with parental controls indicate that parental gatekeeping laws are unlikely to be effective. Third, it explains that the Parent Gatekeeper Model can raise privacy concerns that would create unnecessary pitfalls. The Article proposes however, that hybrid laws, combining both models, could be successful if carefully executed. Specifically, it proposes that timing matters. legislatures can effectively enact parent gatekeeping laws if they do so simultaneously with or after implementing laws under the Tech Liability Model.

Keywords: technology addiction, addictive technologies, screen time, privacy, parents, legislation, social media, regulation, children