Combating Big Tech’s Totalitarianism: A Road Map

In 2022 The Heritage Foundation put together a road map to combat the challenges of Big Tech. Much has been done since.

The growing symbiosis between Big Tech and government gives these companies undue influence over Americans’ daily lives and undermines their rights.

Big Tech has increasingly exercised pervasive control of information and access to the digital space in ways that undermine freedom and a functioning republic.

It is time for aggressive reforms to ensure that Big Tech is held accountable, provide scrutiny and oversight, and constrain its ability to reshape society.

Protecting Kids Using Age Verification

There is growing evidence that social media is extremely harmful to kids – it’s highly addictive, and deliberately so. Worse, the explosion of sexual material online is fueling a crisis of child pornography addiction. State lawmakers are stepping up to protect kids online.

Protecting Kids From Addictive Social Media

Social media has been linked to depression, anxiety, isolation, and suicide in children and teens. Even Meta’s (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) own studies found that its products are toxic to young users, particularly teenage girls.

A 2023 University of North Carolina study found that social media use can legitimately rewire the brains of children as young as 12 years old. Big Tech companies are fully aware of the harmful impact of their products on children and teens – yet they continue to double down on their efforts to shape the minds of the next generation. Meta created a team to study and create products for preteens, Twitter hired online influencers to recruit young people, and TikTok targets teens with addictive content.

We already implement age restrictions – kids can’t get tattoos or piercings without parental consent, or attend movies that are rated R or PG-13. The minimum age to purchase cigarettes and alcohol is 21, as is major gambling in most states. We recognize that certain things are harmful to kids. Limits on a deliberately addictive product that triggers similar responses as nicotine withdrawal and gambling and targets children makes sense.

States can also more precisely define inappropriate and explicit content, require notifying parents when kids are exposed to inappropriate content, and require audits to ensure Big Tech companies are following the law.

Protecting Kids From Explicit Content Online

Currently, pornographic material is readily accessible online. In fact, 80 percent of 12-17 year olds and 37 percent of children 9-11 years old have been exposed to sexually explicit material while online. Adolescent exposure to harmful material is often linked to pornography addiction. This addiction can result in dire consequences including mental health issues like anxiety and depression, as well as increases in isolation, anger, and irritability.

In most states, your child can watch pornography online without anyone first checking whether he or she is 18. Blocking and filtering software has proved to be insufficient in preventing online access to pornography, and not everyone utilizes the software on every device a child may access.

Despite substantial evidence of the harmful impact of obscene content on adolescent mental health, both Congress and the Courts have failed to implement adequate measures to protect children from platforms that promote problematic content, such as pornography. As a result of the federal government’s inaction, the responsibility to safeguard children is currently falling on the states.

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