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How Does Your State Rank for Kids Online Safety?

Photo from Ron Lach via Pexels

How Does Your State Rank for Kids Online Safety?

By Movieguide® Contributor

A new study ranked every state’s online child safety, identifying major trends within the country.

The study ranked each state based on four key areas: Online safety crimes and threats, Cyberbullying prevalence, Cyberbullying and online safety legislation and mental health support. In general, the East Coast and some Midwest states scored high, while West Coast states scored lower. Ironically, states with major technology hubs, such as California and Texas, tended to have the least online protections for children.

Oregon and California by far ranked as the worst states, followed by New Hampshire, Alaska and Ohio — who ranked much closer to the median scores. Oregon ranked so poorly due to weak cyberbullying laws that do not apply away from school campuses along with essentially non-existent sexting laws to protect minors from groomers.

Utah, Hawaii, New Jersey, North Dakota and Connecticut, meanwhile, ranked as the top five states, respectively. Each of these states had exemplary protections in at least one of the four graded categories while also ranking above average in the rest of the areas.

While this study provides a general overview of child safety, parents are ultimately responsible for keeping their children safe online. No matter where in the country families live, their children are always susceptible, to some degree, to being targeted by bad actors. Experts, however, offer a variety of tips to help parents keep their children safe from the dangers of the internet.

The biggest proactive measure parents can take to prevent their kids is to have regular conversations about the things they see online, particularly focusing on things that were upsetting or unusual that they have experienced recently. These conversations can raise red flags and provide parents insight into the people and conversations they should further investigate. Parents should also be especially aware of the relationships their children are fostering with others online, especially when they are with people they do not know from real life.

Thankfully, lawmakers have begun to take child online safety seriously and numerous laws within the past decade have been passed actors the country to further protect our children.

Movieguide® previously reported about child online safety:

Online safety experts from Gabb revealed the top apps they would never allow their children to use.

The list was filled with social media apps that leave the door open for predators or other bad actors to reach their children on. The list included TikTok, Kik, Facebook Reels, Instagram and Twitch.

TikTok, Instagram and Facebook Reels all have similarities as they offer endless content for children to scroll through which can leave them addicted to their screens. TikTok and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, have both been targeted by lawsuits in the past for their addictive nature and have faced intense criticism for allowing dangerous content to spread across their platforms.