Privacy & Safety for Young People
How might we make it easier for parents to be more involved in their teens’ experiences online, while ensuring there are opportunities for young people to continue exploring and discovering with age-appropriate safeguards and privacy protections?

As digital app developers and designers, it’s critical to ensure positive exploration for young people online and build age-appropriate experiences that support young people as they learn and develop responsible habits and encounter various situations online. It’s also important that we provide guardians with resources and tools when they want to help support their teens and play an active role in their lives.
Meta and TTC Labs have been exploring privacy and safety for young people through multi-year and multi-stakeholder collaboration with experts, teens and guardians.
We’ve learned that designing digital experiences that serve young people's best interests - such as providing opportunities for teens to explore and discover in age-appropriate ways - requires accounting for a number of different perspectives, including those of experts as well as lived experiences. At times, these differing points of view require us to navigate complex tradeoffs. These issues are complex and change alongside the evolving abilities of teens and guardians to use, understand and have agency over ever-changing technology.
We are committed to continuing our research and wish to share our progress to date in this report, which brings together key insights from our global co-design and consultation initiative alongside additional relevant research, including user experience (UX) research at Meta, to provide a wider perspective on these questions.
See the impact of our recent multi-stakeholder collaboration with experts, guardians and teens for online supervision experiences with our visual explainer
View ExplainerAdapt to young people as they grow
Cece

“I’m figuring out the kind of person I want to be.”
Designing digital apps for young people is designing for change. Paths are not linear.
For young people who are not yet aware of the potential downsides of online services, digital app developers and designers might provide support through intervention, while also providing educational opportunities to learn about potential downsides and build skills in the background. For those with low self-efficacy, ongoing consistent support is important to help build skills and become more empowered; the level of support might reduce thoughtfully as self-efficacy and autonomy increase over time.
Just because some older teens are more autonomous, for example, it doesn’t mean they don’t need support. For example, their needs might be more centered on on-demand support and education when a specific occasion arises. A sense of autonomy may also lead to complacency before they have sufficient life experience. As teens who might be more familiar with digital experiences or be more mature, it’s important to also give them the opportunity as role models to share their knowledge with younger teens - since we’ve learned that younger teens appreciate learning from their older peers or siblings as well.
Digital app developers and designers can help support young people with guardrails and facilitate their best interests towards safe and increasingly independent interactions online.
Meet teens and guardians where they’re at
Elsa

“I mean, it’s me, in the video. Don’t I get a say who sees it?”
Education is not a one-time experience in real life, which means it can’t be a one-time experience online either. Learning is an ongoing, evolving process.
Learning is also a fast-changing process for young people. In order to provide robust education about personal safety and privacy online, digital app developers and designers should build experiences that meet young people where they are, speak to their distinct needs, and support their journey with proactive educational experiences that change over time and help teens to set their own limits.
Guardians may often feel they lack the context to understand their teens’ online experiences. They need help to demystify digital apps and social technologies. They also need lightweight ways to supervise their teens that enhance communication between teens and parents. The right insights can make conversations around social technology more productive.
Support teens with meaningful tools for positive exploration
J., age 14, Australia

“Show them that they can trust you and that you’re responsible enough to do your own thing without them checking on you”
Young people can be sophisticated online, often managing several apps at once. They adapt the way they present themselves, communicate with others, and share depending on the context and audience as they mature.
As digital interactions become more complex, digital app developers and designers must find new ways to make sure that managing their online lives doesn’t become a burden or source of anxiety or threat to their privacy and safety.
Digital app designers and developers must consider and accommodate for the complex relationships young people can have with friends as well as family members including parents or guardians.
As product makers we need to demonstrate to young people transparency & control over their own data and its impact on their lives. We need to strongly consider the best interests of the child as the guiding principle even if young people are providing self-consent.
Empower with meaningful transparency, control & autonomy
Connor

“I don’t know why some articles are surfaced over others, but I’m okay with that.”
Young people can be sophisticated online, often managing several apps at once. They adapt the way they present themselves, communicate with others, and share depending on the context and audience as they mature.
As digital interactions become more complex, product makers must find new ways to make sure that managing their online lives doesn’t become a burden or source of anxiety or threat to their privacy and safety. Digital products can support young people in making safe choices within healthy guardrails.
Digital products must consider and accommodate for the complex relationships children can have with friends, teachers as well as family members including parents or guardians.
Additionally, we need to empower young people with guardrails and support to facilitate their best interests towards safe and increasingly independent interactions online.
As product makers we need to demonstrate to young people transparency & control over their own data and its impact on their lives. We need to strongly consider the best interests of the child as the guiding principle even if young people are providing self-consent. Design for complex family relationships and increasing autonomy.
Further Reading


Since 2018, TTC Labs has been conducting multi-stakeholder collaboration with by running co-design research and consultation globally.
We are bringing together industry, policymakers, academics, civil society as well as young people and guardians to generate insights and inspiration.
Get InvolvedAre you working in this space?
We'd love to hear from you.
Our explorations on this topic are just a beginning. These challenges require more work, and more insight from the wider community.
Get In TouchInitiated and supported by Meta, TTC Labs is an experimental data design initiative.