Arkansas Governor Seeks Cultural Shift on Kids' Social Media Safety
Legislators can help protect kids on social media, but a cultural shift on the issue of child safety also will require collaboration from Big Tech, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) said Tuesday.
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“We cannot legislate” or “litigate this change,” Sanders said at the state's Social Media Summit. “We can certainly have an impact” and “move it in the right direction, but it will take a collective change and a collective voice to have a true cultural shift, and that's what I believe, ultimately, we really need.”
“One of the big pieces that we have to have is, frankly, engagement from the big tech companies,” Sanders said. “We're starting to see that more because more and more states are championing these issues and passing legislation, and [Big Tech is] spending millions and millions and millions of dollars fighting us in court.”
Because of this process, some tech companies “are starting to ... shift” their approach, and are “more willing to have conversations about partnering with states and with students to protect them in a bigger way.”
Companies creating special teen accounts that include additional protections illustrate this shift, Sanders added.
“Ultimately, they can put in serious protections on the front end that would do such a great service on the content side, on targeting specific issues,” she said.
Attorney General Tim Griffin (R) noted that Arkansas was the first state to sue Meta over harms and bring lawsuits against TikTok and other platforms. “The table [for discussions] will be well populated,” he said. “We're having those conversations.”