The question of how to foster digital wellbeing among youth has become increasingly crucial in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Stakeholders across the spectrum, from government to private industry to advocacy groups, have adopted different approaches to addressing the challenges affecting minors’ rights, parental controls, and overall digital wellbeing among youth.
This year, Aspen Digital set out to better understand the varying approaches to digital wellbeing for young people. What we found is that federal and state governments have adopted protection measures for issues like combating harmful content among minors and creating research task forces. With federal and state level work focusing mostly on protections and restrictions, local level governments seem to combine protection with digital literacy tools for young online users and their families.
Major tech firms have implemented solutions such as age verification and content restriction, and some even offer digital literacy tools on their platforms. Youth-led initiatives and advocacy organizations take a different approach by centering the leadership and development of young people by building programs, fellowships, dialogue, and research models. They assert that not only is it crucial to have youth at the table in decision-making but also protection measures and restrictions are not enough because young people also need the tools to navigate online spaces and shed light on digital inequities and marginalization.