As we head into 2024, there may be an pressing name to motion for us all to take steps to guard youth security and privateness on-line and to make sure that know-how – together with rising applied sciences comparable to AI – serves as a optimistic drive for the subsequent era. As policymakers and regulators weigh potential measures to assist advance security outcomes within the coming weeks and months, it’s important that they contemplate each the advantages and the dangers of know-how for younger folks. Primarily based on our experiences, we define three themes for policymakers to contemplate as they work by means of initiatives to guard youth security and privateness on-line, in addition to Microsoft’s place on these points.
Microsoft’s strategy to on-line security
At Microsoft, our purpose is to empower younger folks to make use of know-how safely, mindfully, and in pursuit of social, academic, and financial alternatives. In step with our mission and our commitments, this implies:
- Unlocking the advantages and energy of know-how for all
- Sustaining our longstanding efforts to advance little one on-line security and privateness
- Advancing our understanding of how know-how and little one well-being intersect
We now have lengthy acknowledged that we’ve got a accountability to help secure on-line experiences for our customers, together with youth, and to contribute to a safer on-line ecosystem. This requires us to stability youth rights thoughtfully and holistically, together with freedom of expression, entry to data, privateness, and safety. There isn’t any one-size-fits-all strategy; interventions to guard youth from dangerous on-line content material or conduct or their information must be tailor-made to the service or function, and to the hurt we’re looking for to deal with.
Key themes for policymakers to give attention to in 2024 and past
- Know-how is important to allow younger folks to unlock social, academic, and financial alternatives.
Coverage and regulatory measures ought to protect the advantages of know-how for younger folks and allow them to take part absolutely of their communities. Know-how has been proven to:
- Create social alternatives: It permits younger folks to attach with others, entry various assets and views, and discover help and knowledge on-line
- Present academic advantages: It could improve entry to studying alternatives, assist various learners thrive, and assist younger folks develop abilities for the digital future
- Create financial alternatives: Mastering computing and AI abilities will grow to be more and more important for a lot of careers throughout all the economic system. Know-how can even empower younger folks to create and innovate, with instruments comparable to generative AI
Nevertheless, we additionally acknowledge that know-how can have unfavourable impacts on younger folks’s well-being, and that these impacts should not evenly distributed: Some younger folks could also be extra weak or marginalized than others. These dangers may change as know-how evolves.
- Empowering younger folks to make use of know-how safely and mindfully requires age-appropriate experiences however age assurance strategies have trade-offs.
We want to have the ability to establish the ages of our customers to guard towards potential hurt. Figuring out a person is below a sure age can allow the applying of various content material insurance policies, privateness settings, household security options, or the availability of age-appropriate content material.
Nevertheless, there are challenges and tradeoffs in implementing sturdy age assurance processes. There’s presently no clear technical answer to age assurance that achieves the accuracy wanted to successfully establish or confirm a person’s age with out risking trade-offs comparable to potential safety, privateness, and human rights dangers. Along with contemplating how we will construct an interoperable and frictionless person expertise, conversations are underway throughout trade on methods to mitigate the next:
- Privateness and safety dangers, comparable to gathering and processing delicate private information
- Fairness and entry challenges, comparable to excluding or discriminating towards sure teams of customers
- Civil rights and authorities surveillance issues, comparable to undermining on-line anonymity and freedom of expression
- Person expertise points, comparable to creating limitations or delays to entry on-line companies
Microsoft is exploring completely different age assurance strategies, enabling us to be taught and enhance our practices and options. We’re participating with technical and different organizations such because the Worldwide Group for Standardization (ISO) to assist develop frameworks to help interoperable and privacy-protective age assurance applied sciences.
However we additionally want the help and steering of policymakers, regulators, and different consultants to assist navigate these trade-offs and discover sensible options which can be each efficient and respect elementary rights. We additionally need to work with consultants to deepen our understanding of how age data ought to inform completely different interventions throughout completely different companies and options, in addition to the place we will appropriately provide options with out age verification measures.
- We should proceed to develop the required proof base to design know-how and insurance policies to advance youth well-being.
We have to consistently replace and enhance our understanding of how know-how impacts younger folks’s well-being, and the way we will design know-how and insurance policies to greatest help and shield them. Extra analysis is rising about using social media, however we see a necessity for extra, medically knowledgeable analysis to grasp the affect of various on-line companies on youth psychological well being, improvement, and studying.
We encourage stakeholders and consultants to put money into additional analysis on various subjects, comparable to constructing understanding of how youth have interaction with completely different sorts of know-how, the affect of limiting entry to know-how, whether or not some options or content material is perhaps extra appropriately restricted than others, and the potential to leverage know-how to ship psychological well being interventions. To help this, on Safer Web Day we are going to publish the most recent outcomes from our annual client analysis.
And, all through, there’s a must middle youth voices and views – we can not meet our targets with out understanding what younger folks need and wish from know-how.
Our help for regulatory measures
Regulatory measures such because the EU Digital Providers Act are driving systemic adjustments in how trade approaches digital security. We help the event of tailor-made, considerate measures that may help younger folks to have interaction safely on-line and commend the great practices beginning to emerge globally. Microsoft helps:
- Threat-based approaches, tailor-made to particular on-line companies and options: We help regulatory approaches that clearly differentiate between distinctive on-line companies and leverage danger or affect assessments to ship efficient mitigations for dangers to kids and younger folks within the design or operation of these companies.
- Clearly outlined harms and duties: The place proposals incorporate an obligation of care to deal with potential harms to kids, we encourage policymakers to offer readability on what’s required to discharge these duties and to obviously outline the harms at subject, primarily based on scientific analysis.
- Consequence-based approaches: To allow a service-specific strategy that helps the rights and greatest pursuits of the kid, we welcome regulatory approaches that concentrate on making certain the methods and processes are in place to mitigate danger and construct in improved privateness protections for youngsters and teenagers.
- Regulatory harmonization and interoperability: To help seamless on-line experiences, we encourage ongoing regulatory cooperation and harmonization, together with between privateness and security regulators, and worldwide regulators.
- Offering parental guardrails: The place acceptable to the service, we help necessities to offer dad and mom and caregivers with sturdy instruments that allow them to decide on guardrails to handle their little one’s on-line experiences.
We welcome the chance to additional have interaction with consultants, policymakers, and regulators to help the event of a safer on-line ecosystem for younger folks.