Keep Iowa Kids Safe Online

Nothing is more important than keeping our kids safe, especially online. I supported the efforts to ban cellphones in the classroom, but we need to go further. As governor, I’ll work on implementing the following policies to keep our kids safe and hold Big Tech companies accountable who profit at the expense of our children’s health and safety.

Here are some ways we can keep our kids safe online:

  • Ban Social Media Accounts for Kids: Full stop. Thanks in part to the courage of Iowan Frances Haugen, we know the depth of the damage, and study after study shows how these platforms hurt our kids’ mental health – anxiety, depression, and physical health implications including sleep loss. It’s also difficult to stop our kids from accessing content they shouldn’t be seeing when they’re online. I support banning social media use for children under 16, and requiring parental consent for 16 and 17 year olds. One method we could push for is App Store Accountability, a law passed in Utah in 2025. This law calls for:

    • Age Verification and Parental Consent: Puts the onus on the App Store and individual app creators to verify age of the app purchaser and require parental consent for those under the age of 18.
    • Parent Account Affiliation & Verifiable Parental Consent: If someone under the age of 18 tries to make an app purchase, this requires the child’s account to be affiliated with that of the parent’s.
    • Notifications for Significant Changes to Apps: Require the App Store to update the user on any significant changes to the app that would impact what a child would view, see, or do on that app.
    • Additional Developer Requirements: Increase requirements for developers to verify age of users and ensure parental consent.
    • Data Safeguards: Ensure the protection of data for users and share only pertinent age information with app developers.

  • Require Independent Audits of Social Media Algorithms: No surprise here, the auditor is calling for more audits! Social media has created a whole new world that our current leaders were unprepared to oversee. For too long, Big Tech companies have been shielded from any sort of accountability or oversight. I’m calling for independent audits of social media companies to outline how their algorithms work so we can see if they are targeting children with addictive content and ensure safety standards are being met.

  • Eliminate “Infinite Scroll” and Limit Screentime for Kids: Infinite scroll has been found to be addictive, compared to tobacco use. It needs to end. As governor, I would push for social media platforms to be barred from implementing “infinite scroll” on accounts of children under 16, and would require these platforms and app makers to give adults the option to opt out of infinite scroll. I also support efforts to limit screentime. Some tech companies already offer this, but all companies should have phones and other devices programmed with screentime-limiting functions built in. Our attention spans are at an all-time low because of the use of digital devices. We need to support policies to reign in how much time our kids spend online to help them stay focused and connected in the real world.

  • Ban Surveillance Advertising and Increase Privacy: As governor, I’d call for a ban on surveillance advertising to anyone under the age of 18. Social media companies should not be surveilling and targeting kids based off of their personal data, search history, or political or religious beliefs. I also support increasing privacy measures, including prohibiting the sale of minors’ data and targeted advertising to minors.

  • Increase Punishments for Online Predators: I spent seven years as a prosecutor, putting away some of the worst sexual predators and sexually violent criminals. Social media companies have made it too easy for sexual predators to prey on our kids online. As governor, I would support increasing punishments for online sexual predators who target our kids, including making sure our law enforcement officials have the training and resources they need to investigate these crimes; require social media platforms to use proactive detection and reporting to identify predators; and hold Big Tech companies accountable for any products that sexualize children.

  • Default privacy settings: Minors’ accounts must be private by default, with geolocation off, adult-to-minor DM restrictions on, and high-privacy defaults for discovery and recommendations.

  • Resources for Cyber Bullying: As governor, I’d work with the Department of Education and local districts to ensure that schools have policies in place that hold cyber bullies accountable and provide resources for victims of cyber bullying. We also need to do more to crack down on sexual extortion and AI deepfakes that put our kids in harm’s way in today’s digital world. I encourage our federal representatives to pass the James T. Woods Act, backed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, and to hold the Big Tech companies accountable for the harms they have knowingly caused and largely ignored, and will work on this at the state level as well.