Alaska’s recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey revealed a disturbing trend: 19% of high school students reported attempting suicide at least once in the past year, more than double the rate recorded in 2011. Senator Dan Sullivan has long argued that social media platforms bear significant responsibility for this trend, hosting community roundtables on the youth mental health crisis and writing about Big Tech’s business model to get children hooked.
Protecting Kids from Predatory Tech
Sullivan’s co-sponsorship of the Parents Over Platforms Act (POPA) is the next step in addressing this issue. The core of POPA is straightforward: when a platform knows a minor is using its product, it must stop harmful practices, including manipulative recommendation feeds, invasive data collection, and personalized advertising targeted at children. These requirements do not rely on platform goodwill or self-policing.
The way platforms receive the signal is practical and privacy-respecting. Parents set an age profile on a child’s device, and the operating system passes an age-bracket signal to apps designated as high-risk, meaning those offering features or content designed for adults. Critically, only apps that provide meaningfully different experiences for adult users are covered, sparing independent developers and small technology businesses that serve communities largely ignored by larger platforms.
The alternative approach circulating in Washington would put the verification burden on app stores, requiring every user to submit age documentation at account creation before downloading anything. For Alaskans in remote communities with limited connectivity and digital infrastructure, this approach would create undue friction, leaving gaps in coverage where Alaska families need it most.
POPA’s device-level approach travels with the child, regardless of how or where they access content, closing loopholes that a store-based solution cannot. The trends in Alaska’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey did not happen in a vacuum; behind each data point is a kid who picked up a phone and found something that made things worse. Senator Sullivan has spent years telling Alaska families that this fight is worth having, and POPA is proof he meant it.
Original reporting: Must Read Alaska (Anchorage) — read the source article.
