Analyzing Social Media Claims regarding Youth Online Safety Features to Identify Problem Areas and Communication Gaps
Renkai Ma, Dominique Geissler, Stefan Feuerriegel, Tobias Lauinger, Damon McCoy, Pamela Wisniewski

TL;DR
This study examines how major social media platforms communicate about youth online safety, revealing gaps and inconsistencies in their messaging and highlighting areas for improved transparency and effectiveness.
Contribution
It provides a comprehensive framework of risk areas and safety features, analyzing platform communications to identify gaps and problematic practices in safety messaging.
Findings
Focus on Content Exposure and Interpersonal Communication
Less emphasis on Content Creation, Data Access, Platform Access
Identified communication issues like discrepancies and unclear explanations
Abstract
Social media platforms have faced increasing scrutiny over whether and how they protect youth online. While online risks to children have been well-documented by prior research, how social media platforms communicate about these risks and their efforts to improve youth safety have not been holistically examined. To fill this gap, we analyzed N=352 press releases and safety-related blogs published between 2019 and 2024 by four platforms popular among youth: YouTube, TikTok, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), and Snapchat. Leveraging both inductive and deductive qualitative approaches, we developed a comprehensive framework of seven problem areas where risks arise, and a taxonomy of safety features that social media platforms claim address these risks. Our analysis revealed uneven emphasis across problem areas, with most communications focused on Content Exposure and Interpersonal…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsBullying, Victimization, and Aggression · Child Development and Digital Technology · Misinformation and Its Impacts
