GoKawiilis a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
An increasing number of people seem to agree the internet is terrible for children — allegedly addictive, destructive to self-esteem, possibly a portal to predators. Over the past year, several countries have started requiring stringent age verification or outright bans for minors. At the end of June in the US, the House of Representatives passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act, the latest in a string of attempted online child safety regulations. A couple of days later, a Pew Research Center survey found over half of US respondents favored a ban on social media for anyone under 16. There’s a growing sense that the digital world is a public health crisis and something — no matter how extreme — must be done.
But while politicians chase elaborate and questionable methods of keeping kids away from the worst of the internet, another option is staring them in the face: Spend money to make it better. And, fortunately, I’ve got an idea: Levy a tax on major tech companies, and hand out that money for the construction of what we should call a children’s public internet.
First of all, what is a children’s public internet? I’m not suggesting an entirely separate service like France’s national proto-internet Minitel, but something more like the “public lane in the information superhighway” that author Ben Tarnoff proposed in Internet for the People — or, more tangibly, the 20th-century push for children’s public television. The goal would be to fund new or existing online services that meet two criteria: They primarily serve children, and they don’t operate for profit. Beyond that, the options are myriad. A few hypothetical grant recipients:
A library-run, community-moderated Mastodon instance for young users
An open-source, non-monetized version of Roblox
A website that offers ad-free, child- or teen-appropriate news and educational content
A protocol for reverse age verification — working with school systems or government agencies to verify users of a child-focused site are minors, while minimizing (to the extent it’s possible) privacy and security risks
A local newsletter or web portal that promotes nearby in-person family activities
A group of volunteer moderators for a children’s crafts forum
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