Laws and regulations governing the safety of teens (ages 13-18) and their use of social media should be consistent with the principles outlined below.

1. Without dispute the safety and well-being of children and teens should be one of priorities for social media platforms and policymakers.
2. Social media platforms are making improvements on safety features for users but there remains a gap between awareness and usability of these features by users and their caregivers. Social media platforms have a responsibility to make these features easily usable for all users.
3. The rights of parents and caregivers should be respected as those in charge of and best able to care for teenagers in their household. The state, any of its political subdivisions, any other governmental entity, a private company, or any other institution may not infringe on the fundamental rights of a parent or primary caregiver to direct his or her teen.
4. Lawmakers should ensure teen social media safety proposals are narrowly targeted, the least restrictive means to achieve their goal, and avoid approaches that would have broader effects deeper in the technology stack.
5. Social media done at scale, while having significant benefits for all users, has the potential for harm, and it is impossible to prevent by regulation or changes in platform policy.
6. Legislation designed to protect teenagers must not violate the First Amendment speech rights of minors, adults, and corporations.
7. New laws should not pose a risk of increasing the likelihood of warrantless government surveillance, mass data collection, or government jawboning.
8. Well intentioned proposals should not expose teens or adults to increased harm in the case of criminal data breaches. Policies that require users and teens to share personally identifiable data by nature increases the likelihood and severity of a data breach.
9. If that device manufacturers, major app store and mobile operating system developers have parental and caregiver features to filter content, use, and app availability, any policy solution, legislative or otherwise, must recognize those features
   when making policy.
10. Lawmakers should address nuanced harms of social media use, rather than seeking blanket prohibitions, and if truly seeking to meet a challenge, consider what may need to be done outside of social media.
11. Legislation should emphasize educating students about healthy social media habits and the importance on staying safe online as opposed to prohibiting access.