Sara Rodriguez says ‘we need better guardrails around tech’ for kids’ online safety

The lieutenant governor’s plan replaces a “wild west” environment with regulations that give parents the ability to sue tech companies that mine children’s data and encourage addictive behaviors.

If Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez wins the Democratic primary and goes on to be elected governor this fall, she says she will bring a nurse’s mindset into areas like children’s online safety where “buyer beware” needs to be replaced with more safeguards and certainties for parents.

Rodriguez outlined her “Keep Wisconsin Kids Safe Online” proposal to UpNorthNews, starting with a push to ensure that technology companies “are not using our children’s data to make a profit.”

“They can monitor kids across every website they go to,” Rodriguez said. “They can feed them infinite scrolling, and they can give them pop ups. And so we have to actually put the onus, where it belongs, which is on Big Tech. They should be the ones that are putting these controls out there to begin with, as well as making sure that we can actually sue them if they cause harm.”

The plan from Rodriguez would also increase penalties for online predators and do more to prevent platforms from allowing artificial sexualized images of children.

“That’s insane to me that we have not put controls around this,” Rodriguez said. “And if the federal government isn’t going to do that — and clearly the Trump administration is not going to — then the states have to come in to make sure that we’re protecting our kids.”

The Wisconsin Assembly recently approved a stricter ban on cell phones in schools, something Rodriguez says she supports because it creates phone-free learning environments and reduces pressure on kids to be constantly connected to their devices. But Rodriguez took issue with other bills heading to the Senate that put the burden on parents to verify their identity with biometric data or government IDs. She said as governor she would support doing more to hold social media platforms accountable instead of placing the responsibility on parents alone.

“I have two teenagers, 16 and 19,” Rodriguez said, “and I’m a nurse by background and we have seen how badly social media has affected our kids’ mental health. And so this was really the impetus for me to put this out there. We need better guardrails around tech.”