The digital technology industry must make design choices that prioritize the mental health, privacy and safety of children, a federal task force says.

While online social sites offer people a way to build community and connect, they can also pose risks, especially for adolescents, according to the Kids Online Safety Task Force, which was led by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

The task force released its “Report on Safer Social Media and Online Platform Use for Youth,” in July, highlighting concerns about social media use by young people and providing recommendations to protect their privacy and safety.

Nearly 95% of American teenagers and 40% of children ages 8 to 12 use some form of social media, often to communicate with friends. Unfortunately, social media can also expose youth to physical and mental health abuse, including cyberbullying, discrimination and sexual exploitation. Risks are high enough that the U.S. surgeon general in June recommended that social media platforms contain warning labels for youth.

It is crucial that content providers create a safe place for youth users of sites, said Alan Davidson, JD, MA, assistant secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

“As young people spend more of their lives online, it is past time to act and do more to protect them,” Davidson, a task force co-chair, said in a news release. “This task force report outlines practices and design choices that companies can implement today to prioritize the privacy of kids, their well-being and their ability to thrive online.”

Among the recommendations are creating default youth privacy protections, ending features that encourage excessive use and limiting those that can harm mental health. Companies can put limits on “likes” and similar interactive features that tend to create unhealthy competition among users, for example.

The report also encourages better strategies to monitor and discourage cyberbullying, discrimination, harassment and other dangerous behaviors. It also calls for platform providers to make online safety resources more equitable to audiences from a wider range of backgrounds and literacy levels.

Parents and the public health community must also stay informed about content on social media platforms, task force members said. The report includes “conversation starters” and other resources for parents and caregivers talk to youth about social media dangers.

Several bills making their way through Congress are aimed at tightening privacy protections for youth users of social media and other websites and limiting advertising to the audience.

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