According to a study published by Common Sense Media on Wednesday (January 29), American teenagers have lost their faith in Big Tech. Common Sense Media interviews over 1,000 teens about if major tech companies such as Google, Apple, Meta, TikTok and Microsoft made ethical decisions, cared about their safety, protected their private data, and more. In all cases, the majority of respondents reported low levels of trust in the companies. Nearly half said they had little or no trust these companies are being responsible with how they use AI.
Big Tech has been gaining distrust in the United States for years, since at least the 2013 revelation of mass data collecting by the government. Factoring in, the data scandal of Cambridge Analytics, Facebook whistleblower leaks in 2021 showing Meta was aware of the harm on society and multiple congressional hearing over safety were the CEOS of these companies were grilled over safety, antitrust issues and the harmful algorithms they use-it makes sense that teenagers who have grown up with this technology are mistrustful of it.
President Trump secured “allegiance” from tech CEOS in the form of $1 million donations to his inaugural fund-in the hopes of gaining his favor and avoiding further scrutiny and regulations-at the cost of their users. This was seen was disingenuous by many, since the CEOs have flip-flopped after criticizing Trump in his first term. Teens may not track these headlines the way the adults in their lives do, but the shift in sentiment is affecting them. Common Sense says 64% of the surveyed teens don’t trust Big Tech companies to care about their wellbeing and mental health. 62% don’t think the companies will protect their safety if profits are on the line.
53% don’t think the companies make ethical and responsible decisions in design- the growing use of dark patterns is meant to trick, deceive and confuse the user. Another 52% say Big Tech won’t keep their information safe and 51% don’t think the companies are fair and inclusive when meeting the needs of its many different users.
With mistrust in tech, comes mistrust in Artificial Intelligence-47% of teens think the companies will make bad decisions with their use of AI. This study builds on a previous one conducted by Common Sense about the adoption of AI among teenagers and how it affects the larger media landscape. For example, 41% of teens reported seeing fake images online that fooled them, 35% were tricked with fake online content in general and 28% couldn’t tell if they were speaking to a a bot or human. A third of the surveyed teens also said GenAI is making it harder to trust the information they get online, the figure rises to 40% if the teens had been mislead or duped by content before.
39% of teens noticed issues with AI chatbots’ output when using it for help with school and homework. A whopping 74% of teens said privacy safeguards/transparency were needed to manage AI. An equal share said companies employing AI should discourage you from sharing your personal details and information on the platforms. A further 73% said AI images should be labeled with watermarks. 61% of teens feel that content creators/influencers should be compensated if their data is being used by AI systems.