North America
5Rights collaborates with a wide multi-stakeholder coalition to support legislative initiatives across North America and ensure children’s online experiences are safe by design.
Overview
While American companies have significantly shaped the internet as children know it today, there is a growing recognition across the US and Canada of the critical need for privacy and safety by design and default for children. This shift is reflected in laws inspired by and aligning with the standards of the Age Appropriate Design Code, backed by large multi-stakeholder coalitions. Several US states have passed legislation, and Canada is working towards stronger protections and the strengthening of children’s rights at the federal level.
“We must implement common sense regulations worldwide to ensure that new technologies make us healthier and better connected, not the opposite.”
Natalie, 17
Children’s experiences
In North America, over 80 million children navigate a digital world optimised for commercial exploitation. 96% of the 50 websites most popular with children in Canada employ an average of five trackers to continually collect data from children and, although 80% have privacy settings, only 12% set them to private by default. As a result of manipulative design, an overwhelming majority of teenagers in the US report checking messages or notifications as soon as they appear, and many feel anxious when they don’t have their phones.
Our work in North America
5Rights collaborates with a wide multi-stakeholder coalition to support legislative initiatives across North America. In Canada, where 7 in 10 Canadians support stronger regulation of digital products and services, 5Rights works to ensure federal and provincial legislation reflects the broad consensus that children must have distinct protections. We engage with legislators, regulators, and civil society to hold tech companies accountable to integrate children’s privacy, safety, and right by design and default.
In the US, our efforts have led to the successful passage of laws, starting with California’s groundbreaking Age Appropriate Design Code (CAAADC), followed by similar legislation in Maryland, Nebraska and Vermont.
In Canada, 5Rights works with a diverse range of policymakers, regulators, civil society organizations, and academics. This collaboration has resulted in the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) making children’s privacy a strategic priority and working to develop a children’s privacy code.
Highlighted resources
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US courts and lawmakers are telling tech companies that safety by design is not optional
From TikTok’s court loss to Meta’s $17 billion settlement, US courts and states are forcing tech companies to make child safety a design requirement, not an afterthought.
Meta settles in landmark child safety trial but stops short of meaningful default improvements
Facing a landmark trial over child safety, Meta agreed to pay close to $17 billion but the settlement leans on access restrictions and optional features, rather than fixing the engagement-driven design at the root of the harm by default.
More than half of US States sue Meta over addictive design practices
As over half of US States take Meta to court, evidence is mounting that Instagram and Facebook weren’t just careless with children’s safety but deliberately designed to be addictive.
New Jersey becomes latest US state to adopt an Age-Appropriate Design Code
New Jersey has adopted an Age-Appropriate Design Code, strengthening protections for children online and adding to the growing momentum for safety by design across the US.
