What’s keeping me up: KOSA report & policy lags

The Scoop: The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) was supposed to offer strong protections for our kids in the digital world, and it still very well could– but its slow rollout and the rapid pace of online threats have left me uneasy. Kids are more connected than ever, and technology often moves faster than our policies can keep up with. This disconnect puts them at risk in an ever-changing digital landscape.

The Big Picture: While top-down policy moves at a sluggish pace, the Kids Online Health & Safety Task Force has released a detailed 130-page report on best practices for online safety. It’s lengthy, but one thing is clear: the need to keep an eye on your child is not new. Just as you once kept an eye on their walk to a friend's house, now you're tracking their virtual steps.

My Advice: Here’s what matters most from the report to help you keep pace:

Parents should balance screen time with offline activities, keep open lines of communication about online experiences, and lead by example with their own media use.
Use the 5 Cs framework to guide you: know your child’s media habits, ensure quality content, encourage calmness and emotional self-regulation without excessive screen time, promote screen-free activities and ensure screen time doesn’t crowd out other things like sleep and outdoor time and maintain honest, non-judgmental conversations about media use.