Promoting youth online safety and wellbeing

As we enter 2024, there is an urgent call to action for all of us to take steps to protect the safety and privacy of youth online and to ensure that technology – including emerging technologies such as AI – acts as a positive force for the next generation. As policymakers and regulators weigh potential measures to help improve safety outcomes in the coming weeks and months, it is imperative that they consider both the benefits and the risks of technology for young people. Based on our experiences, we outline three themes for policymakers to consider as they work through initiatives to protect youth safety and privacy online, as well as Microsoft’s position on these issues.

Microsoft’s approach to online security

At Microsoft, our goal is to empower young people to use technology safely, consciously, and in pursuit of social, educational, and economic opportunities. In line with our mission and our commitments, this means:

Unlock the benefits and power of technology for everyone. Upholding our long-standing efforts to promote children’s online safety and privacy Advancing our understanding of how technology and child well-being intersect

We have long recognized that we have a responsibility to support safe online experiences for our users, including youth, and to contribute to a safer online ecosystem. This requires us to thoughtfully and holistically balance youth rights, including freedom of expression, access to information, privacy and security. There is no one-size-fits-all approach; interventions to protect youth from harmful online content or behavior or their data must be tailored to the service or feature, and to the harm we are trying to address.

Key themes for policymakers to focus on in 2024 and beyond

Technology is critical to enabling young people to unlock social, educational and economic opportunities.

Policy and regulatory measures must preserve the benefits of technology for young people and enable them to participate fully in their communities. Technology has been shown to:

Create social opportunities: This enables young people to connect with others, access diverse resources and perspectives, and find support and information online. Provide educational benefits: It can increase access to learning opportunities, help diverse learners thrive and help young people acquire skills for the digital future Create economic opportunities: Mastering computing and AI skills will become increasingly essential for many careers across the economy . Technology can also empower young people to create and innovate, with tools like generative AI

However, we also recognize that technology can have negative impacts on young people’s well-being, and that these impacts are not evenly distributed: Some young people may be more vulnerable or marginalized than others. These risks may also change as technology develops.

Empowering young people to use technology safely and wisely requires age-appropriate experiences, but age-assurance methods have trade-offs.

We need to be able to identify the ages of our users to protect against potential harm. Knowing that a user is under a certain age may enable the application of different content policies, privacy settings, family safety features or the provision of age-appropriate content.

However, there are challenges and anomalies in implementing robust old age insurance processes. There is currently no clear technical solution for age assurance that achieves the accuracy needed to effectively identify or verify a user’s age without risking trade-offs such as potential security, privacy and human rights risks. In addition to considering how we can build an interoperable and frictionless user experience, industry-wide conversations are underway about ways to mitigate the following:

Privacy and security risks, such as the collection and processing of sensitive personal data Fairness and access challenges, such as the exclusion of or discrimination against certain groups of users Civil rights and government surveillance issues, such as the undermining of online anonymity and freedom of expression User experience issues, such as e.g. creating barriers or delays in accessing online services

Microsoft is investigating different age assurance methods, which allows us to learn and improve our practices and solutions. We are working with technical and other organizations such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to help develop frameworks to support interoperable and privacy-preserving age insurance technologies.

But we also need the support and guidance of policymakers, regulators and other experts to help navigate these trade-offs and find smart solutions that are both effective and respect fundamental rights. We also want to work with experts to deepen our understanding of how age information should inform different interventions across different services and features, as well as where we can appropriately offer solutions without age verification measures.

We must continue to expand the necessary evidence base to design technology and policies to promote youth well-being.

We must continually update and improve our understanding of how technology affects young people’s well-being, and how we can design technology and policies to best support and protect them. More research is emerging on social media use, but we see a need for additional, medically informed research to understand the impact of different online services on youth mental health, development and learning.

We encourage stakeholders and experts to invest in further research on diverse topics, such as building understanding of how youth engage with different types of technology, the impact of limiting access to technology, whether some features or content may be more appropriate limited than others, and the potential to leverage technology to deliver mental health interventions. To support this, on Safer Internet Day we will publish the latest results of our annual consumer research.

And throughout there is a need to center youth voices and perspectives – we cannot achieve our goals without understanding what young people want and need from technology.

We support regulatory measures

Regulatory measures such as the EU Digital Services Act are driving systemic changes in how the industry approaches digital security. We support the development of tailored, thoughtful measures that can support young people to engage safely online and commend the good practices that are beginning to emerge worldwide. Microsoft supports:

Risk-based approaches, tailored to specific online services and features: We support regulatory approaches that clearly distinguish between unique online services and use risk or impact assessments to deliver effective mitigations for risks to children and young people in the design or operation of those services. Clearly defined harms and duties: Where proposals include a duty of care to address potential harm to children, we encourage policymakers to provide clarity on what is required to meet those duties and to address the harms at issue. clearly defined, based on scientific research. Outcome-based approaches: To enable a service-specific approach that supports the right and best interests of the child, we welcome regulatory approaches that focus on ensuring that the systems and processes are in place to mitigate risk and enhance privacy protection for children and to build in. teenagers. Regulatory harmonization and interoperability: To support seamless online experiences, we encourage ongoing regulatory cooperation and harmonization, including between privacy and security regulators, and international regulators. Provision of Parental Guidelines: Where appropriate for the Service, we support requirements to provide parents and caregivers with robust tools that enable them to choose guidelines to manage their child’s online experiences.

We welcome the opportunity to engage further with experts, policy makers and regulators to support the development of a safer online ecosystem for young people.

Tags: AI, online protection of children, Online safety, Safer Internet Day