What Kids and Parents Want: Policy Insights for Social Media Safety Features

This CDT study used a human-centered design approach, engaging 45 teens and parents to evaluate how proposed child-safety policies for social media align with the lived experience of the people they are meant to protect. Participants assessed four widely discussed intervention categories: age verification, screen-time limits, algorithmic feed controls, and parental access features.

On parental access specifically, teens were generally comfortable with parents having visibility into their activity but strongly opposed parents being able to delete content or remove apps without their consent; parents largely agreed, distinguishing between appropriate approval for significant actions, such as installing a new platform, and approval requirements for routine activity, which both groups viewed as excessive.

Across all four categories, participants emphasized that flexibility, transparency, and sensitivity to individual family dynamics were essential, warning that rigid, one-size-fits-all rules risk provoking resistance or workarounds rather than improving safety. The report argues that centering the perspectives of teens and parents can help policymakers and platform designers craft interventions that are both more acceptable and more effective.