Connect x Protect believes young people deserve age-appropriate online spaces where they can connect safely while protecting their privacy. This campaign amplifies the voices of parents and kids to demand policymakers find solutions that protect kids online in a way that preserves privacy and makes the internet safer for everyone.
Protect Teens. Preserve Privacy.
Parents shouldn’t have to choose between online safety and privacy.
Kids deserve both.
- We advocate for a safer internet for kids — one where young people can benefit from the connected world without sacrificing their privacy or the security of their personal data.
- We push back on flawed policies that present a false choice between safety and privacy and rely on ineffective measures like age-verification checks that expose sensitive data and ignore the risks kids encounter on web browsers, consoles, and desktops.
- We believe that we can keep kids connected and protected — we educate and empower families by translating the complicated proposals before policymakers into clear, transparent guidance and advocate for better solutions that include privacy and security at their core.
- We seek a practical path — a safer digital ecosystem with shared responsibility and smarter solutions. Through research, collaboration, and clear communication, we help families and policymakers understand what effective online safety looks like — without sacrificing kidsʼ privacy, security, or well-being.
What We're Reading
- Meta Agrees to Pay $17B, Adopt Kids’ Safety Features to Resolve States’ LawsuitsSACRAMENTO, California — Meta has reached a tentative $17 billion settlement with nearly all U.S. states that would also see the social media giant make sweeping changes to dramatically restrict minors’ access to Instagram and Facebook, the California Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
- Texas Legislature Revisits Social Media and Parental RightsSocial media's effect on children returned to the Texas Capitol last week, where lawmakers heard competing perspectives about youth mental health, addictive technology, age verification and how far government should go in trying to protect minors online.
- Zero Knowledge Proofs Aren’t Age Verification Silver BulletsAge verification (laws and regulations requiring platforms and websites to assure or estimate that a user seeking to use an online service is of a certain age) is everywhere. At the time of writing, about half the states in the US have some internet age verification law in place, and dangerous proposals, from the KIDS Act to the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), have been advancing at the federal level. European Union member states are moving toward having age verification in a centralized app by the end of this year. Australia famously now has one extremely broad restriction in place.
- French Social Media Bans for Minors Stalls, but EU-Wide Decisions Don’tLast week, the French Constitutional Council - the highest constitutional authority in France - blocked the law banning minors under 15 years of age from using social media and other digital services, ruling it partially non-compliant.
Updates
- 2026 State Legislative Recap: Youth Online Safety & Age VerificationAs 2026 state sessions closed, lawmakers continued to debate bills claiming to protect kids online but could require families to share more personal information just to use everyday apps and websites. These proposals raise real privacy and security concerns that would impact everyone, not just kids.
- When Age Verification Goes WrongHow Some Bills Could Backfire for Real Families – Everyone agrees: kids and teens deserve safer online spaces. But some age verification proposals could create new risks while promising protection.
- Virtual Panel on Digital SafetyEpisode 1 (Digital Safety): Connect x Protect executive director Terry Samuel interviews Shane Tews of the American Enterprise Institute, Ben Gillenwater, The Family IT Guy and Dr. Joseph South, an education innovation specialist at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and former director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education.
The internet is where we live much of our lives.
For kids and teens, it is how they learn and grow, communicate and build community.They deserve an internet that is as safe as it is exciting.
