Our 56 current Inspired Internet Pledge (IIP) Signatories and Advisors have been hard at work conducting research, creating resources, organizing convenings, and releasing innovative new tools and tech innovations, all in pursuit of a healthier digital ecosystem for everyone, especially young people.
Check out some of the highlights from our Signatories’ and Advisors’ individual and collaborative efforts in Q1 below and on their individual pages. (Don’t see your company’s or organization’s update here? Email it to us so we can get it added!)
Research
- The USC Neely Center and Pinterest are among the co-authors of the report Better Feeds: Algorithms That Put People First, which provides a roadmap for algorithms that serve users’ long term aspirational preferences, rather than their short term consumption.
- Snap launched the newest edition of its Digital-Well Being Index (DWBI) research with this finding: The online environment became riskier for Generation Z in 2024, with eight out of 10 teens and young adults reporting exposure to at least one online risk. Encouragingly, despite that uptick in risk exposure, more teens said they sought help after experiencing a digital issue, and more parents reported checking in with their teens to help them better navigate online experiences. These factors combined to edge Snap Inc.’s DWBI to 63 in Year 3, up one percentage point from 62 in Years 1 and 2.
- Sync had a busy Q1 with the release of several comprehensive research studies: the Global Digital Wellbeing Index (DWI) looking at how digital technology influences behavior and quality of life around the world and whether governments and individuals are equipped to get the best out of technology; the second edition of Digital Welling Global Survey which was completed by over 35,000 adults on how to reap the benefits of the information age while simultaneously promoting health, safety, social cohesion, and more; a gaming disorder report International Comparison of Gaming Disorder Symptomatology, and a socio-demographic report, Socio-Demographic And Attitudinal Correlates Of Problematic Social Media Use.
- Alongside public health and legal scholars, the USC Neely Center co-authored a report, Social Media Harm Abatement: Mechanisms for Transparent Public Health Assessment, that specifies a specific mechanism for ongoing public health assessment of social media platform impact. The report will be published in an upcoming issue of the Annals of the NY Academy of Sciences.
- FOSI is kicking off its first-ever internal research project (without sponsor or research firm support) and they are #ISO of expertise! The study is mixed-methods, starting with 3-4 focus groups and then a short survey (n = 1,000), focusing on teens in the U.S. aged 13-17. FOSI is seeking a “research mentor” who has worked with teens in the past and is available for weekly or bi-weekly check-ins to provide guidance and insights throughout the process. If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to Alanna Powers at apowers@fosi.org
Resources
- TikTok launched an in-app digital safety and privacy guide aimed to help users (especially teens and parents) better understand and manage their privacy settings, content controls, and safety tools on the platform. In addition, TikTok introduced a new suite of features to empower teens and parents to develop healthy digital habits. Updates include a “Time Away” tool allowing parents to schedule app-free periods, visibility into who their teen follows/following/blocked, and a “wind down” feature that prompts users under 16 with calming music and visualizations encouraging them to log off after 10 PM.
- Be Human(e) launched a new initiative offering free educational presentations for schools on the impact of technology on youth mental health, inspired by the recent Netflix show Adolescence. Rooted in their mission to promote emotionally intelligent technology use, these presentations are led by digital wellbeing experts and backed by Be Human(e) research collaborations with Harvard and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Be Human(s) aims to equip parents with the tools to recognize early emotional struggles, foster healthier tech habits at home, and support adolescent development in the digital age.
- Parent ProTech has partnered with the Georgia Department of Education to make their digital citizenship resources available in every Georgia public school.
- The Thriving Games Group is excited to announce the Digital Thriving Playbook is live! The Playbook is a hub for accessible, research-backed knowledge and leading industry practices developed by gaming-industry veterans and researchers. These practices help cultivate healthy player dynamics, create inclusive online spaces, and design safe and engaging experiences for everyone.
- Character.AI added a new tool, Parental Insights. This feature is the first step in providing parents with information about the time their teen spends the site.
- Cantina Labs launched a Teen Safety section in our Safety Center to make safety policies and design more accessible. This resource is designed for parents, educators, and young people themselves, offering clear guidance on how Cantina is built to support and protect youth across both product features and policy.
- Roblox has added three additional parental controls to empower families to get the most out of Roblox and reiterated our belief that regardless of whether parents use controls, the safety of our youngest users is paramount to the Roblox experience. In addition, they’ve redesigned their Safety and Civility Center to connect our community with the resources, information, and news that impacts them most.
- Scroll by Choice is taking the opportunity this summer to teach kids how to learn AI tools responsibly and ethically. Learning from the experience of how harmful it was to just hand social media and smartphones to kids, they’ve built a 2-week curriculum for kids to learn the latest GenAI Tools, but with a twist—they’re blending in critical thinking exercises + digital wellness concepts. Instead of just exposing kids to the open GenAI tools, Scroll by Choice has built a platform where the instructor gets full control to help direct the curiosities—and is excited to try this in-person “camp” format starting in June in the Seattle area.
Innovations
- Wipro announced the development and validation of RTC-10, a new tool created by their Wellbeing and Resilience team specifically to support content moderators. They recently presented RTC-10 at the Global Majority Research Center (GMRC) Speaker Series, part of the Trust and Safety Research Coalition at the Trust & Safety Foundation (TSF). Their presentation focused on the tool’s design, development, validation, and application, including case studies, psychological risks, and tailored interventions, while also exploring key learnings, challenges, and future research directions to advance global Trust & Safety wellbeing.
- Cantina Labs introduced clear, in-product messaging during account creation to reinforce their minimum age requirement of 16. They also added in-product education around bot age—bots on Cantina must be aged 18 or older—helping ensure that users, especially teens, understand who they are engaging with. They further increased transparency by publishing a public-facing age policy in their Help Center, making their standards easy to access for users, parents, and caregivers.
- Snap launched applications for new international Councils for Digital Well-Being (CDWB) in Australia and Europe. These separate “sister” councils will align with their inaugural CDWB in the U.S. The programs will each run about 18 months and are designed for teenagers in Australia and Europe. Their goal with each of the councils is to solicit diverse perspectives from teens on the state of life online today, as well as their hopes and ideals for more positive and rewarding experiences. The program will feature monthly calls, project work, and engagement with members of our global Safety Advisory Board and U.S. CDWG. In the first year, selected members will be invited to a Snap office in their respective region for a two-day summit and, in Year Two, they’re planning more public-facing events where council members will share their learnings and perspectives.
- TikTok announced the expansion efforts of their Global Youth Council, which nearly doubled in size, from 15 to 28 council members. Due to this growth, we’ve established three regional councils to ensure ample opportunity to co-design policy and product updates.
- Sync established a student internship program with 12 interns from IIT, University of Dhaka.
- Roblox hosted the inaugural session of our Roblox Teen Council, a key component of our Youth Engagement Program. This session has already yielded positive results to authentically include youth voice to inform decision making for our product teams
- PRIVO completed planned development and QA work on our Age Aware Services™ roadmap, sufficient for initial integration with pilot partners beginning in Summer 2025. These services (Minors Protection Registry & Query/Signal) include their free, opt-in, privacy enhanced resources for parents and youth to establish truth-in-age for minors and groundbreaking signal options for companies, directly addressing previous major corporate pain points (e.g. new friction for users and age assurance transaction costs).
- Trust Elevate shared details regarding technical standards. They are working with OpenID Foundation to develop a technical standard for verifying parental responsibility online, crucial for age-gating and parental consent required by regulations for banks, fintechs, and digital platforms. This standard, complementing ISO 27566, aims to solve legal guardianship verification. To ensure inclusivity, a parallel policy framework, “Inclusive Digital Parenting: Delegated Authority for All Children including Alternative Care Settings,” is being developed with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other stakeholders to support children in alternative care and those acting in loco parentis, enabling them to oversee children’s online activities and access recourse options under laws like the European Digital Services Act (Article 21) for harmful content. Given the Inspired Internet Pledge’s focus on digital wellbeing, both the technical standard and policy framework are relevant to limiting children’s exposure to harmful content (e.g., promoting eating disorders, self-harm) and empowering verified guardians to seek redress, making involvement in this collaborative effort valuable.
Convenings
- On Safer Internet Day (February 11, 2025), IIP Signatories and Advisors gathered virtually for Guardians of Digital Wellness, co-hosted by Scroll by Choice and the Digital Wellness Lab. The conversation explored how solutions providers can help bridge the gap between the tools built into apps and platforms—and the families and youth who rely on them. It was an evidence-driven, thought-provoking exchange designed to spark new ideas, innovations, and questions about building a safer, more supportive internet. Catch up with the full recording here.
Collaborations
- Roblox became a founding partner of ROOST (Robust Open Online Safety Tools). This new nonprofit is dedicated to addressing important areas in digital safety—especially online child safety—by building scalable, interoperable, and resilient safety tools suited for the AI era.
- Pinterest sponsored the 2025 Common Sense Media Summit on Kids and Families and convened multiple thought leadership conversations with several Inspired Internet Pledge collaborators—including #HalftheStory and the California Partners Project.
- Modulate has expanded the Gaming Safety Coalition by welcoming a new member organization. They have also continued to publish tipsheets and resources through the Coalition and hosted a networking event at the Game Developers Conference this year.
- Cantina Labs launched a new partnership with Crisis Text Line, a leading nonprofit in mental health support. This collaboration enables them to introduce new self-harm and suicide prevention messaging to connect users who may be in distress to expert resources.
- PRIVO participated in a US Trade Mission to Australia and began sharing the Minors’ Protection Registry (MPR) with prospective collaborators there, including distribution partners and signal subscribers. PRIVO also participated in the US delegation to the Global Age Assurance Standards Summit in Amsterdam, along with numerous other Inspired Internet Pledge Signatories and Advisors.
- In TikTok’s continued sponsorship of the National PTA’s “Create with Kindness” program (an interactive program aimed at facilitating conversations between teens and their families about online safety and civility, and how to create positive digital boundaries together), they hosted another marquee event with high school students, their parents/caregivers, and faculty to explore their experiences and expectations when navigating the online world.
- TikTok expanded their partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in March to provide its 170+ million US users with in-app notifications of an active AMBER alert in their area. Through this partnership, TikTok is able to bring critical, time-sensitive information directly to people’s feeds to raise awareness of missing children and leverage the TikTok community to help reunite them with their families.
- Internet Safe Kids Africa, in collaboration with Data Girl and Friends, The Plunk Foundation, and Generation Remix, proudly co-organized and hosted the virtual Shield Global Online Safety Conference. This landmark event united global experts to address critical issues surrounding online safety, privacy, and digital wellbeing, with a particular emphasis on the needs of children and youth. Through this impactful partnership, Internet Safe Kids Africa reaffirmed its dedication to fostering safer digital spaces across the African continent by amplifying local solutions, encouraging peer learning, and strengthening global cooperation for a more inclusive and secure digital future.
Coming Soon!
May
May 17-29, 2025 – Geneva, Switzerland
World Health Assembly
Sync will be participating and contributing as a speaker at the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva. The theme of this year’s Health Assembly is: One World for Health.
June
June 11, 2025 – Amsterdam, Netherlands
FOSI 2025 European Forum
This event will convene experts from across sectors with the theme The Philosophy, Policy, and Practice of Online Safety, examining the frameworks, strategies, and collaborations that shape a safer digital world. The forum will feature leading researchers, academics, policymakers, industry leaders, and NGOs, providing a platform for critical discussions on the latest research, regulatory developments, and best practices in online safety. Topics will include the role of government and industry in fostering digital responsibility, the impact of new technology on youth and families, and how parents and educators can navigate the evolving online landscape. Further details and registration can be found here.
July
July 11-13, 2025 – Virtual
NAMLE 2025 Conference
Registration is now open! Join us for an engaging event filled with expert-led sessions, interactive workshops, and meaningful discussions on the future of media literacy education. Whether you teach elementary, middle, or high school, work in higher education, or specialize in a specific subject area, you’ll find sessions tailored to your needs. Don’t miss this opportunity — view the full schedule and register.
July TBD – Washington, D.C.
FOSI Combined Research and Policy Event
More information regarding the specific date and event will be shared soon!
October
Oct 27-31, 2025 – Virtual
U.S. Media Literacy Week hosted by NAMLE (nationwide)
The mission of the annual U.S. Media Literacy Week is to highlight the power of media literacy education and its essential role in education all across the country. U.S. Media Literacy Week calls attention to media literacy education by bringing together hundreds of partners for events and activities around the country. Learn more and register as a participant here.
November
November 10, 2025 – Washington, D.C.
FOSI Annual Conference 2025
This year’s theme, Online Safety in Tumultuous Times: Navigating risks and mitigating harms, while embracing the rewards for kids and their families, will bring together leaders from the public, private, academic, and nonprofit sectors to address today’s most urgent online safety challenges. The conference will explore how to safeguard children and families in a rapidly evolving digital landscape—balancing the need to manage risks while championing the positive opportunities technology offers. Registration will open soon.