As we head into 2024, there’s 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 reminiscent of AI – serves as a optimistic drive for the subsequent technology. As policymakers and regulators weigh potential measures to assist advance security outcomes within the coming weeks and months, it’s important that they take into account each the advantages and the dangers of know-how for younger individuals. Primarily based on our experiences, we define three themes for policymakers to think about as they work via 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 objective is to empower younger individuals to make use of know-how safely, mindfully, and in pursuit of social, instructional, and financial alternatives. In line with our mission and our commitments, this implies:
- Unlocking the advantages and energy of know-how for all
- Sustaining our longstanding efforts to advance baby on-line security and privateness
- Advancing our understanding of how know-how and baby well-being intersect
We now have lengthy acknowledged that we’ve 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 info, privateness, and safety. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy; interventions to guard youth from dangerous on-line content material or conduct or their knowledge ought to be tailor-made to the service or characteristic, and to the hurt we’re looking for to handle.
Key themes for policymakers to concentrate on in 2024 and past
- Know-how is essential to allow younger individuals to unlock social, instructional, and financial alternatives.
Coverage and regulatory measures ought to protect the advantages of know-how for younger individuals and allow them to take part absolutely of their communities. Know-how has been proven to:
- Create social alternatives: It allows younger individuals to attach with others, entry numerous sources and views, and discover help and data on-line
- Present instructional advantages: It may improve entry to studying alternatives, assist numerous learners thrive, and assist younger individuals develop abilities for the digital future
- Create financial alternatives: Mastering computing and AI abilities will develop into more and more important for a lot of careers throughout your entire economic system. Know-how can even empower younger individuals to create and innovate, with instruments reminiscent of generative AI
Nevertheless, we additionally acknowledge that know-how can have destructive impacts on younger individuals’s well-being, and that these impacts will not be evenly distributed: Some younger individuals could also be extra weak or marginalized than others. These dangers may additionally change as know-how evolves.
- Empowering younger individuals 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. Understanding a person is underneath a sure age can allow the appliance 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 strong age assurance processes. There’s at the moment 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 reminiscent of potential safety, privateness, and human rights dangers. Along with contemplating how we are able to construct an interoperable and frictionless person expertise, conversations are underway throughout trade on methods to mitigate the next:
- Privateness and safety dangers, reminiscent of gathering and processing delicate private knowledge
- Fairness and entry challenges, reminiscent of excluding or discriminating towards sure teams of customers
- Civil rights and authorities surveillance considerations, reminiscent of undermining on-line anonymity and freedom of expression
- Person expertise points, reminiscent of creating boundaries 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 partaking 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 steerage of policymakers, regulators, and different consultants to assist navigate these trade-offs and discover sensible options which might be each efficient and respect elementary rights. We additionally wish to work with consultants to deepen our understanding of how age info ought to inform completely different interventions throughout completely different companies and options, in addition to the place we are able to appropriately supply options with out age verification measures.
- We should proceed to develop the mandatory proof base to design know-how and insurance policies to advance youth well-being.
We have to continuously replace and enhance our understanding of how know-how impacts younger individuals’s well-being, and the way we are able to 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 impression 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 numerous subjects, reminiscent of constructing understanding of how youth have interaction with completely different sorts of know-how, the impression of limiting entry to know-how, whether or not some options or content material could be 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’ll publish the newest outcomes from our annual client analysis.
And, all through, there’s a must heart youth voices and views – we can not meet our targets with out understanding what younger individuals need and wish from know-how.
Our help for regulatory measures
Regulatory measures such because the EU Digital Companies Act are driving systemic modifications in how trade approaches digital security. We help the event of tailor-made, considerate measures that may help younger individuals to interact safely on-line and commend the nice 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 threat or impression assessments to ship efficient mitigations for dangers to youngsters and younger individuals within the design or operation of these companies.
- Clearly outlined harms and duties: The place proposals incorporate an obligation of care to handle potential harms to youngsters, we encourage policymakers to offer readability on what’s required to discharge these duties and to obviously outline the harms at problem, based mostly on scientific analysis.
- End result-based approaches: To allow a service-specific strategy that helps the rights and greatest pursuits of the kid, we welcome regulatory approaches that target guaranteeing the programs and processes are in place to mitigate threat and construct in improved privateness protections for youngsters and youths.
- 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 mother and father and caregivers with strong instruments that allow them to decide on guardrails to handle their baby’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 individuals.
