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Policy

How far should Congress go?

Take kids and social media. This staircase rises from a step Congress could take now to the most ambitious reform. Choose a step to see the problem it solves and what Congress would do.

Kids + Social Media · 8 options

See all five ladders in the Policy Explorer

Most ambitious

Start here

Kids + Social Media · Step 1 of 8

Disclose Brief No. 01

Time-Spent Data Disclosure + Researcher Safe Harbor

Let the public see what the phone already counts.

The problem

Every iPhone and Android phone is built to measure how long its owner spends in each app, how often they pick it up, and how many notifications pull them back. None of it reaches the public, so parents, researchers, and legislators are left guessing.

  1. Researchers get shut out.
  2. The data stays locked in.
  3. Laws go unmeasured.

The solution

Congress should protect the researchers, let Americans share their own data, and make the national numbers public.

  1. Step 1 · FloorProtect the researchers
  2. Step 2Let Americans take their data with them
  3. Step 3 · HeartPublish the national numbers
  4. Step 4Count the whole screen
Open as a page

Go further

Explore every ladder. Track every bill.

Interactive · 5 ladders · 37 briefsHighbeam Policy ExplorerEvery ladder and every one-page brief in one place. Pick a problem, climb from the first step Congress could take to the most ambitious reform, and read what each option would do.Open the Policy Explorer Legislation trackerHighbeam AtlasTracks the technology bills moving through Congress and all 50 states, organized by the problem each bill tries to solve and the remedy it proposes.Open Highbeam Atlas

How to read a ladder

Start at the floor. Climb as far as the evidence warrants.

Every rung stands alone

Each option is a complete proposal with its own one-page brief. Congress can pass one without the others.

Higher rungs ask more

Lower rungs mostly ask for evidence and disclosure. Higher rungs ask more of companies and government, up to limits, liability and structural reform.

Each brief is a staircase too

Inside every brief, graduated steps run from a floor Congress could pass now to the heart of the proposal.

Prefer a list? See all 37 briefs