Tech Guardrails for Kids and TikTok's $400M Settlement

0:00 Speaker 1 Lynn’s Warriors. Well, lynnswarriors.org, produced by and the CEO, Lynn Shaw, how to make our kids be smarter and live longer. And what do we take care of our kids? Well, Lynn Shaw, tell us what you have in mind this week.

0:20 Speaker 2 Well, good morning, John. First of all, here’s what’s happening. Nobody’s talking about TikTok. TikTok is one of the big tech platforms that all the kids love. They love TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Snap. And I want to explain this and why it’s so important for parents to listen up here because on August 21st, very quietly. Media is not even covering this, really.

0:42 TikTok and ByteDance, which is the Chinese portion, I’m going to try to break it down and make it easy, the Chinese portion of owning TikTok, okay, they agreed to a $ 400 million settlement over alleged violations, so settlement, so they’re not really admitting guilt, right? They settled, of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, and that’s known as COPPA, C-O-P-P-A.

1:05 And parents should pay attention because $ 400 million sounds like an enormous amount of money. But here’s the question to ask. Settled. What does this actually change for kids? So the DOJ says, you know, 300 million immediately, another 100 million when we get rid of this Chinese portion. I know this story is kind of convoluted about TikTok, but let’s go back, John.

1:29 Remember under Biden, it was like nobody in the government, everybody off TikTok. We got Chinese national security threats off of TikTok. Do you know, John? fairly recently, a few weeks ago, President Trump said, yeah, everybody can go back on TikTok, all government employees. I don’t understand that, John, because what happened to the national security threat? But we’re

1:47 trying to stick to kids right now. So again, a settlement isn’t the same thing. You know, kids under 13 are not supposed to be on TikTok. Yet so many kids are. You know and I know kids are savvy.

1:59 Kids are smart. They know how to get around guardrails. They know how to check off a box is what we have saying. Are you 13 or older? That’s what they’re doing. There’s no other accountability. So are we protecting our kids or simply negotiating another check, another technology company after damage has already been done? Because we just went

2:18 through this with Meta settling out of court to the 18th. billion. So I want everybody, they shouldn’t just take TikTok at their words saying, you know what? We are doing everything in our power to keep your kids safe. Big tech history has shown us, John, they do not. Where is the transparency? We have none. They are violating this COPPA,

2:39 this Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, and they’re writing a check to erase all of this. That is not enough. We need this harmful conduct online with our kids. Again, pro-innovation, we’re pro-technology. But We can’t have our kids. We need some guardrails. We need them, big tech, to step up to the plate and join us to help keep our

2:59 kids safe. We know nothing. Where’s the public accounting? How do they help with $ 400 million? Transparency. Again, there is none. How many kids were affected? We have no idea. What kind of information was affected about our kids? Again, they were taking, you’re not supposed to be on TikTok. You have to be older than 13. They were information about,

3:17 you know, eight-year-olds on TikTok. And what could be said, John, is yes, parents are on the first line of defense, but parents and grandparents today need help with all this craziness. So parents, nobody was notified. Nobody had any kind of like, you know, questions from TikTok with their kids on it, like about oversight or anything or what exactly they’re going

3:38 to change. The statement was they’re going to do better. They’re doing everything in their power. So here’s what we say. Do not take, you know, at their word, big tech. You must get involved. It’s your child’s digital footprint. And you’ve got to start talking to your kids. You’ve got to know. You probably bought those devices. You pay for everything.

3:57 You’ve got to know what’s going on online. Our kids are not a business model. And that’s what big tech looks at our kids for. So to finish up, you know what? Come together, parents. Ask questions. There’s plenty of resources.

4:09 Go to lynnswarriors.org. Talk to your kids. Understand what’s going on online. And let’s question our government, why they keep settling with the tech as opposed to making actual changes to prevent all of this exploitation in the first place.

4:24 Speaker 1 I think what they’re trying to do is just get it off their books, say that they settled it, do the best job they can, make an acceptable deal between them and the government, and move on. So all that means is we still have to be very careful because the tech guys are smart people and they know how

4:46 to get around things.

4:48 Speaker 2 Exactly. You just did the whole segment for me.

4:51 Speaker 1 I know what I’m talking about, and you know what you’re talking about, but I know... I know how to say it.

4:56 Speaker 2 Well, you just said it in 30 seconds where I can’t even, I can’t even say the name in 30 seconds, but that’s exactly it. The Czechs always talk, but we need safety. We need them to step up to the plate.

5:05 We need President Trump to be along with us, you know, and say, parents, American parents first, we’re going to help everybody do the pro-innovation, do the air, do it all. But kids, families, we need help. And that’s what we’re rallying around.

5:17 Speaker 1 Lynn Shaw, thank you so much for coming on this Sunday morning and And we keep fighting for our kids because I got young kids and I got young grandchildren now and we watch out for them.

5:29 Speaker 2 That’s exactly right. Thank you, John.