Hon.
Mark Warner U.S.
Senate 703
Hart
Senate
Office Building Washington, D.C.,
20515 November 8, 2017 Dear
Senator
Warner, Common
Sense
Kids Action, the
policy
arm of Common
Sense
Media, applauds your leadership in
improving
accountability and transparency
on online platforms.
We are writing
to let
you know
that we
strongly support your bill,
the
“Honest Ads Act,”
which would
require
disclosures for
campaign advertisements. We
are adding it
to our
Common Sense Legislative
Ratings Tool
as a
“For
Kids”
bill
and will
communicate our position to
our parent and
teacher members.
Feel free
to
use our
organization’s
name in
association with your efforts
on
this bill. Common
Sense
is the
nation’s leading independent nonprofit
organization dedicated to
helping kids
thrive
in a world
of media and
teachers, and policymakers by
providing
unbiased information,
trusted advice, and innovative
tools to
help them
harness the
power of
media and technology as
a positive force
in all
kids’ lives. The
policy arm, Common
Sense
Kids Action, is
building
a movement of
parents, teachers, business leaders, and
other advocates
dedicated to
making kids
our nation’s
top priority
by
supporting policies
at the
state
and federal level that
contribute
to the building
blocks
of opportunity
for
kids. Common
Sense
is committed
to helping
parents and
educators teach kids
to spot
deceptive media. The
advent
of “fake
news” spread during
the
last election cycle only brought
into
sharper focus the
need for
this
type of
digital education. Particularly
disturbing was
the prevalence of misleading
campaign advertisements on social media, as
well as
other purported “news”
spread through
these
sites. Transparency on these sites is
particularly
important for
young
people. Common
Sense’s research
found that
half of kids
get their
news from online
media, and it
is the most
preferred
source. We believe
that
the government
can work hand-in-hand
with social
media platforms and groups like
Common
Sense to
combat the spread of
misleading
information and its
impact on
our
kids. By requiring those
who
purchase and
publish political
advertisements online
to disclose information about
them,
the Honest
Ads Act will improve
election transparency
on social media platforms.
This
is an excellent
first
step
towards increasing overall transparency
on
these platforms,
so
that Americans
that
turn
to them
for
news and information, especially kids,
are not misled.
2200
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