Technology

EXCLUSIVE: YouTube And TikTok Bailed On Child Safety Panel Days After Meta’s Social Media Addiction Settlement

TikTok on iPhone in hand in a cafe or coffee shop. (Flickr/https://nordskovmedia.dk/)

Two major tech platforms seemingly dropped out of a federal panel on designing safer apps for kids, government documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show.

YouTube and TikTok appeared on an early agenda for the “Rethinking Digital Design for Youth” panel at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Live Real Life Symposium on Tuesday, but they were not listed on the final version of the agenda after committing to the event, according to documents reviewed by the DCNF.

“Our focus is not on any one company. It is on making sure parents, families, communities, healthcare professionals and technology leaders have the information and tools they need to help children build healthier relationships with technology,” an HHS spokesperson told the DCNF. The Office of the Surgeon General’s Advisory and Toolkit released in May detail steps the department is taking to reduce children’s screen time.

The Live Real Life Symposium drew technologists, physicians, researchers, educators, government officials and child safety advocates to a federal discussion on how to reduce harmful screen use for children, according to an HHS Sept. 1 press release.

YouTube, owned by Google, and TikTok, owned by TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

This comes days after Meta, which was listed on the final agenda, agreed to pay up to $17 billion to 51 attorneys general over ten years to settle a federal trial that claimed it designed Facebook and Instagram to addict teens, an Aug. 26 California Attorney General press release stated.

Meta implored YouTube and TikTok to adopt teen safety measures for their respective platforms.

“These [teen] protections will only be truly effective if we work with our peers — TikTok and YouTube — to put the same measures in place,” Meta said in an Aug. 26 open letter to the platforms.

Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, said YouTube and TikTok missed the panel to avoid questions about the effects their platforms have on children.

“Not only have YouTube and TikTok failed to step up and join Meta in offering meaningful new changes to keep kids safe on their platforms, but YouTube and TikTok both chose to back out of an event with HHS where they may have been asked to answer for the harm they’ve caused millions of children and families,” Schilling said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Their silence, including pulling a disappearing act on the Trump Administration, speaks volumes,” Schilling added.

Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos, principal deputy assistant secretary for health and director of national health communications for the Office of the Surgeon General, moderated the HHS panel. She framed the department’s screen-use effort as a response to broad agreement that the issue is real.

“We searched all of the body of evidence, compiled it all in one place,” Haridopolos said in an Aug. 16 interview with the DCNF. “Pretty much ubiquitously, we are seeing consensus approval on this document where people are like, ‘Yes, this is a problem. Please let us know what we can do about it.’”

Child safety advocacy groups pointed to Meta’s settlement as a standard for the industry to follow and called out the platforms that have yet to follow suit.

“The settlement rightly raises the bar for new and critical child safety features the rest of the industry should also implement to help ensure kids are safer online,” Enough Is Enough said in an Aug. 26 press release. “It will take a combination of Big Tech prioritizing safety over profit, legislative action, and continued parental involvement to protect children online.”

Others said the rest of the industry should act now.

“Meta’s decision sets an excellent precedent. It is time for every tech company, starting with TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube (Google), to put the health and safety of children first,” American Principles Project said in an Aug. 26 press release.

Meanwhile, one advocacy group cautioned that the settlement should not become a substitute for legislation.

“One social media platform acting alone will not solve the problem of keeping children safe online. All the tech platforms, including Google, Snap, and TikTok, must comply,” Concerned Women for America said in an Aug. 26 press release.

“Lawmakers may be tempted to view these settlements as a happy solution to the problem of passing bipartisan legislation to keep children safe online,” the organization warned.

Another advocacy group was more critical about Meta and what the settlement represents.

“Meta deserves no kudos for being forced to do the right thing under the gun, but we should not forget that many other social media platforms are also harming children,” the Institute for Family Studies said in an Aug. 28 press release. “We need to apply these same measures to all social media platforms.”

YouTube turns on “Take A Break” and bedtime reminders by default for teen accounts, according to YouTube’s help pages. Parents can cap or disable time spent on YouTube Shorts for supervised teen accounts.

TikTok currently sets a default 60-minute daily screen-time limit for users under 18, according to the platform’s “Guardian’s Guide.” Teen accounts are set to private by default, and the Family Pairing feature lets parents set specific limits for their children.

The social media platform’s control was transferred to TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC in the U.S. in January, the platform announced in a Jan. 23 press release.

A group of investors led by Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX hold 80.1 percent of the joint venture, while Chinese parent company ByteDance holds 19.9 percent, the press release stated.