The first in a long line of upcoming Project 2029 ideas
For months, hundreds of policy experts have been working to shape the Project 2029 plan for the next president. Over the next year and beyond, we’ll be rolling out dozens of proposals, from housing and health care to AI and democracy — all in service of a single goal: Forging a bold agenda to address the issues that matter most to Americans.
Today, we’re excited to share the first in what will be a long line of big ideas from Project 2029: Kids Over Clicks. In it, we lay out a clear roadmap to protect children from the harms of social media and AI. In an exclusive piece from Semafor, Kids Over Clicks is embraced by leaders in the field to move the debate beyond talk and toward a governing agenda:
“We are at the ‘tobacco moment’ for social media. The science is in, the lawsuits are succeeding, and public support is overwhelming. This agenda gives policymakers no excuse not to act,” said social psychologist Jonathan Haidt
Introducing: Kids Over ClicksHaidt is among a number of prominent supporters of the [Project 2029] framework, including New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten, and [Sen. Cory] Booker, a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
Kids Over Clicks offers one example of the approach Project 2029 is bringing to the major issues facing our country. As we say, this is a moment to “take big swings.” Rather than a series of incremental tweaks, Kids Over Clicks offers a bold vision for what our next president can and must do to protect kids.
Talk to any family today, and they feel like they’re on their own when it comes to keeping their kids safe online. And the stakes couldn’t be higher:
The typical American teen spends about five hours a day on social media and nearly one in three kids demonstrates an addictive pattern of social media use by the time they finish middle school — one researchers have linked to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. At the same time, they have grown lonelier, while reading and math scores have fallen sharply.
Our proposal includes a sweeping set of reforms:
Age restrictions that keep the youngest kids, whose brains are still developing, off addictive apps until age 16;
Privacy-by-default and safety-by-design standards that close off the unsolicited messaging and recommendation features child predators exploit;
First-of-their-kind rules of the road for AI chatbots, including liability for platforms that cause real harm and a ban on chatbots cosplaying as licensed professionals;
A national standard for bell-to-bell cellphone bans in schools;
A dismantling of the surveillance advertising business model that profits off targeting vulnerable teens
Too often, our political discourse presents a false choice between optimism about technology on the one hand and protecting kids and the values of the American people on the other. As the policy argues:
Technology has transformed American life — mostly for the better — and the next wave of innovation, including AI, holds even more promise. But that promise will be wasted if the price of admission is a generation of kids growing up anxious, addicted, and unsafe.
We have been in this kind of moment before. The moment for action is now.
For generations, government has stepped in to keep addictive products like tobacco and alcohol out of young people’s hands. And from cribs to car seats to bike helmets, the physical products in a kid’s life have to pass federal safety tests. It’s time we hold the digital products in their lives to the same standard and implement a comprehensive online safety agenda that puts kids over clicks.
Kids Over Clicks will create real debate. That’s a good thing, and we welcome it. Project 2029 was created to put big, serious solutions back at the center of our politics and to challenge our leaders to meet the moment. Perhaps most importantly, it will offer something our politics badly needs: a bold, substantive roadmap forward.
