STANDARDS
What Are Standards?
Standards are documents that establish an agreed upon way of doing something.
Standards help ensure a common approach and repeatable outcome in the design and development of products, services and technologies.
A standard can be thought of as an agreed-upon norm used by people, industry, and government that outlines the best way to complete a task – whether it’s about developing a product, providing a service, controlling a process, or interacting with the world.
A standard is stated as a principle; it is a claim or assertion to be defended.
A standard describes something that exists in a well-running organization/business — it is a characteristic or essential feature.
STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
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Standards are established documents that define an agreed-upon method for accomplishing a task. They ensure a consistent approach and predictable outcomes in the design and development of products, services, and technologies. Essentially, a standard is a consensus-driven norm used by people, industries, and governments to outline the most effective way to complete a specific task, whether that involves product development, service delivery, process control, or interaction with the world. Standards are principles that assert how things should be done and describe the essential features of well-functioning organizations and businesses. They play a critical role in ensuring the safety, quality, and reliability of products and services, protecting public health, and improving systems and processes by reducing waste, cutting costs, and ensuring consistency. Moreover, standards provide a shared framework for expectations, allowing industries, especially in the technology sector, to align their product designs with these agreed-upon benchmarks.
The rationale behind having standards varies depending on the context. In some instances, the rationale serves as the justification for the standard itself, often articulated as an argument where the conclusion is the statement of the standard. This rationale may include supporting evidence, explanations, or examples that bolster the need for the standard.
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Standards ensure the safety, quality and reliability of products and services.
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Standards protect our health.
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Standards improve systems and processes, they reduce waste, cut costs and ensure consistency.
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Standards provide a basis to share the same expectations about a product or service (in this case for the tech companies to understand the target they should be shooting for in their product designs).
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In some cases, the rationale is the argument for the standard. In other cases, it provides information on the reasons for a standard.
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When the rationale is treated as an argument: It is written in such a way that the conclusion of the argument is the statement of the standard.
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The rationale may include additional evidence (explanation, examples) supporting the standard.
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Rationales are relatively short, e.g., 100-250 words. Not all standards have a rationale.
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Standards development is a voluntary and collaborative effort.
Standards development includes a diverse set of inputs and stakeholders.
Standards are informed by scientific literature and expert input.
Standards development is based on a consensus-based approach, not unanimous agreement.
Sub-Standard: How the principle in the standard may be achieved.
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Typically reflect some kind of “action”.
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Contain only one concept unless the ideas belong together or are inseparable.
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SAFE ONLINE STANDARDS
Policy
Standard 1: The company has a policy on user safety that:
The company should maintain a clear, accessible, and enforceable user safety policy that is age-appropriate and informed by recognized practices in mental health, well-being, suicide prevention, and user protection.
The policy should explain the company’s approach to user safety, including how it promotes well-being, incorporates user input, and responds when safety rules are violated.
The policy should address core safety areas such as reporting, parental tools, platform use, harmful content, and mental health-related risks, including suicide and self-harm.
The company should also describe how it reviews and responds to serious safety concerns, including when content may be removed, escalated, or paired with support resources.
Standard 2: The company has a policy on advertising to users aged 13-19 that:
The company should maintain a clear, accessible, and age-appropriate advertising policy for users ages 13–19. The policy should be informed by recognized practices in mental health, youth development, and suicide prevention.
The policy should describe how the company seeks to protect young users from advertising that may negatively affect their safety, mental health, or well-being.
The company should explain its approach to reviewing, limiting, and enforcing advertising practices for users under 18, including how concerns about ads can be raised and addressed.
The policy should also address how the company protects youth data in advertising-related practices and promotes transparency for users, families, and other stakeholders.
Standard 3: The company has a policy on research on suicide, self-harm, mental health and wellness that:
The company should maintain a clear and accessible policy on research related to suicide, self-harm, mental health, and wellness. The policy should be easy to understand, age-appropriate where relevant, and informed by recognized practices in mental health and suicide prevention.
The policy should recognize the value of responsible research in improving user safety, mental health, suicide prevention, and overall well-being.
The company should describe how it supports credible research, considers user input, and protects user privacy and safety in research-related activities.
For users under 18, the policy should include additional protections for youth data and make clear how the company approaches research involving minors.
Functionality
Standard 1: The platform has a reporting feature that:
The platform should provide reporting tools that are easy to find, easy to use, and easy to understand. These tools should be clearly available within the platform experience and designed with user needs in mind.
The platform should have a process for receiving, reviewing, and responding to reports involving harmful content, concerning behavior, or other safety issues.
The reporting experience should support users before, during, and after a report is made, including through clear guidance, appropriate follow-up, and access to relevant safety resources.
The company should also continue improving its reporting systems over time so users can more effectively identify, report, and respond to safety concerns.
Standard 2: The platform protects users that are exposed to harmful SSI content and:
The platform should maintain tools and safeguards designed to reduce user exposure to harmful suicide or self-injury content.
The platform should provide clear ways for users to report harmful content and should respond with appropriate safety actions, support resources, and user protections when exposure occurs.
The platform should also have safeguards to reduce the spread or amplification of harmful content, especially in high-risk or real-time environments.
Users should have meaningful tools to manage their safety and content experience, including controls that help them limit exposure to harmful or unwanted content.
Standard 3: The platform includes features regarding user time that:
The platform should provide clear, accessible, and age-appropriate tools that help users understand and manage their time on the platform.
These tools should be easy to find, easy to use, informed by user input, and designed with developmentally appropriate guidance in mind.
The platform should support healthier patterns of use by offering features that help users pause, reflect on, or adjust their platform activity.
The platform should also provide tools that help users and families better understand usage patterns and identify when platform use may be connected to well-being or safety concerns.
Standard 4: The platform provides parental tools and controls that:
The platform should provide parental tools and controls that are easy to find, easy to use, age-appropriate, and developmentally informed.
These tools should be designed with input from users and families and should help parents, caregivers, and young users understand how to manage safety settings.
The platform should support families in setting appropriate boundaries around a young user’s experience, including platform use, interactions, privacy, and access to certain features or content.
For users under 18, the platform should include age-appropriate safeguards that help ensure young users are prepared to access certain platform features in a safer and more informed way.
Governance & Transparency
Standard 1: The company employs a Trust and Safety Team that:
The company should maintain a dedicated Trust and Safety function with leadership responsible for user safety, health, security, and child protection.
The company should involve qualified experts in mental health, youth development, suicide prevention, and related safety areas to help guide platform policies, products, and responses.
The company should also seek meaningful input from users, families, community members, and people with relevant lived experience when developing, monitoring, and evaluating safety practices.
This standard is intended to ensure that platform safety decisions are guided by responsible leadership, subject matter expertise, and community-informed perspectives.
Standard 2: The company is transparent:
The company should be transparent about how it approaches user safety, including how it identifies, reviews, and responds to harmful content and serious safety concerns.
The company should explain, in clear and age-appropriate language, how safety-related technologies and internal processes are used to support user protection.
The company should provide meaningful information about safety trends, platform improvements, and actions taken to reduce risk over time.
The company should also clearly explain how user data is collected, used, and protected, including what choices users have to manage their privacy and safety.
Standard 3: The company voluntarily participates in and/or supports:
The company should support responsible research that helps improve understanding of platform use, youth safety, mental health, and well-being.
The company should be transparent about how it approaches research, how it protects users in research-related activities, and how research findings may inform platform safety practices.
The company should also demonstrate a clear commitment to health and well-being as part of its broader platform responsibility.
Standard 4: The company voluntarily provides an annual:
The company should provide clear and accessible information about its user safety practices, including how safety performance is reviewed and reported over time.
The company should support appropriate independent review or oversight of safety-related practices where relevant.
The company should also evaluate new technologies that may affect user safety, mental health, or well-being, and consider how those technologies may create new risks or protections for users.
Standard 5: The company conducts an annual exposure to violence evaluation that:
The company should evaluate how users may be exposed to harmful content and serious safety risks on the platform.
The company should provide clear and meaningful information about those risks in a way that helps users, families, researchers, and other stakeholders better understand the platform safety environment.
This standard is intended to encourage companies to measure, review, and communicate how harmful content may affect user safety over time.
Standard 6: The company is transparent regarding advertising:
The company should be transparent about how advertising is governed for young users.
The company should explain how it reviews advertising practices, promotes accountability among advertisers, and works to reduce advertising-related risks for minors.
The company should also describe how youth privacy, data use, and personalization are addressed in advertising-related practices.
Standard 7: The company has a compliance department that:
The company should maintain a compliance function responsible for supporting safety oversight, accountability, and review of platform practices.
This function should help ensure that safety-related obligations are understood, monitored, and addressed across the company.
The company should also regularly review serious safety risks on the platform and communicate how it is taking action to reduce those risks over time.
Digital Literacy & Well-Being
Standard 1: The company educates users:
The company should provide users with clear, accessible education about crisis support, safety resources, and mental health and well-being.
This education should help users understand where to find credible support, how to respond to serious safety concerns, and how to use platform tools that may support safer and healthier experiences.
The company should also promote broader digital wellness by helping users understand how platform features, interactions, and engagement tools may affect their well-being.
Standard 2: Recognizing a user’s right to be forgotten (i.e. the right to erasure), the company:
The company should educate users about their rights and choices related to personal data, including the ability to request deletion or removal where applicable.
The company should provide a clear and accessible process for users who wish to manage, delete, or remove their personal information from the platform.
The company should also communicate clearly with users about the status and outcome of those requests.
Standard 3: The company proactively educates users on digital literacy and wellness that:
The company should proactively provide digital literacy and wellness education that is easy to find, easy to understand, age-appropriate, and developmentally informed.
Educational materials should be informed by recognized practices in mental health, suicide prevention, and youth well-being, and should reflect user needs where appropriate.
The company should help users better understand the platform, their responsibilities, and how to use digital spaces in safer and healthier ways.
This education should support awareness of mental health, well-being, and serious online safety risks.
Standard 4: The company responsively provides digital literacy and wellness content that:
The company should provide digital literacy and wellness content that is easy to find, easy to understand, age-appropriate, and developmentally informed.
The content should be informed by recognized practices in mental health, suicide prevention, and youth well-being, and should draw from credible health-related sources where appropriate.
The company should provide users and families with timely guidance about platform tools, safety settings, and wellness resources as user needs change over time.
The content should support mental health and well-being and help users and families understand serious safety concerns that may arise in digital spaces.
Standard 5: The company educates users on developmentally informed, age-appropriate use that:
The company should educate users about developmentally informed and age-appropriate use of the platform.
This education should help users understand how platform experiences, features, and responsibilities may change based on age, maturity, and developmental stage.
The company should support safer and more informed use by helping users and families understand when certain platform experiences may require additional guidance, readiness, or safeguards.
The company should also educate users about their digital rights, including their relationship to personal data, content, and information shared on the platform.
Content
Standard 1: The company employs a Trust and Safety Team that:
The company should maintain a dedicated Trust and Safety function with leadership responsible for user safety, health, security, and child protection.
The company should involve qualified experts in mental health, youth development, suicide prevention, and related safety areas to help guide platform policies, products, and responses.
The company should also seek meaningful input from users, families, community members, and people with relevant lived experience when developing, monitoring, and evaluating safety practices.
This standard is intended to ensure that platform safety decisions are guided by responsible leadership, subject matter expertise, and community-informed perspectives.
Standard 2: The company is transparent:
The company should be transparent about how it approaches user safety, including how it identifies, reviews, and responds to harmful content and serious safety concerns.
The company should explain, in clear and age-appropriate language, how safety-related technologies and internal processes are used to support user protection.
The company should provide meaningful information about safety trends, platform improvements, and actions taken to reduce risk over time.
The company should also clearly explain how user data is collected, used, and protected, including what choices users have to manage their privacy and safety.
Standard 3: The company voluntarily participates in and/or supports:
The company should support responsible research that helps improve understanding of platform use, youth safety, mental health, and well-being.
The company should be transparent about how it approaches research, how it protects users in research-related activities, and how research findings may inform platform safety practices.
The company should also demonstrate a clear commitment to health and well-being as part of its broader platform responsibility.
Standard 4: The company voluntarily provides an annual:
The company should provide clear and accessible information about its user safety practices, including how safety performance is reviewed and reported over time.
The company should support appropriate independent review or oversight of safety-related practices where relevant.
The company should also evaluate new technologies that may affect user safety, mental health, or well-being, and consider how those technologies may create new risks or protections for users.
Standard 5: The company conducts an annual exposure to violence evaluation that:
The company should evaluate how users may be exposed to harmful content and serious safety risks on the platform.
The company should provide clear and meaningful information about those risks in a way that helps users, families, researchers, and other stakeholders better understand the platform safety environment.
This standard is intended to encourage companies to measure, review, and communicate how harmful content may affect user safety over time.
Standard 6: The company is transparent regarding advertising:
The company should be transparent about how advertising is governed for young users.
The company should explain how it reviews advertising practices, promotes accountability among advertisers, and works to reduce advertising-related risks for minors.
The company should also describe how youth privacy, data use, and personalization are addressed in advertising-related practices.
Standard 7: The company has a compliance department that:
The company should maintain a compliance function responsible for supporting safety oversight, accountability, and review of platform practices.
This function should help ensure that safety-related obligations are understood, monitored, and addressed across the company.
The company should also regularly review serious safety risks on the platform and communicate how it is taking action to reduce those risks over time.
The United States has various standards for different types of media and products to ensure safety, appropriateness, and quality. Scroll through below for some notable ones:
Automobiles
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): Provides safety ratings for vehicles based on crash tests and other safety evaluations.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Provides fuel economy ratings and emissions standards for vehicles.
Books
Common Sense Media: Provides age-appropriate ratings and reviews for books, movies, TV shows, and games based on content.
Buildings & Construction
Building Codes: Various local, state, and national codes, such as the International Building Code (IBC) and National Electrical Code (NEC), ensure safety and quality in construction.
Food & Beverages
Food and Drug Administration
Nutrition Facts Label: Required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide information on the nutritional content of food and beverages.
USDA Organic Certification: Ensures products labeled as organic meet the standards set by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Health & Pharmaceuticals
FDA Approval: Ensures that drugs, medical devices, and vaccines meet safety and efficacy standards before they can be marketed.
Music
Parental Advisory Label (PAL): Indicates explicit content in music recordings, managed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Online Content
COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act): Regulates the collection of personal information from children under 13 by websites and online services.
CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act): Requires schools and libraries to implement internet safety policies and filter inappropriate content to receive federal funding.
OSHA
OSHA develops and enforces regulations known as standards to ensure workplace safety and health. These standards are found in Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).
Television
TV Parental Guidelines: Provides ratings like TV-Y (All Children), TV-Y7 (Directed to Older Children), TV-G (General Audience), TV-PG (Parental Guidance Suggested), TV-14 (Parents Strongly Cautioned), and TV-MA (Mature Audience Only).
Toys & Products for Children
Children’s Product Safety: Regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which ensures toys and products for children meet safety standards.
Video Games
Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB): Ratings include EC (Early Childhood), E (Everyone), E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older), T (Teen), M (Mature 17+), and AO (Adults Only 18+). I like this website.
Verified Carbon Standard
The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program is the world’s most widely used greenhouse gas (GHG) crediting program.
OTHER STANDARDS
IMPACT AND EVALUATION PLAN
SHORT TERM
Adoption by tech companies.
Endorsement by organizations.
MID TERM
Reported increase in face-to-face time with peers, family.
Reduction in consumption.
Reduction in number of safety incidents/reports.
LONG TERM
Changes in platforms, games, engagement.
Reports decrease in distress, depression, anxiety, eating disorders.
Reduction in suicide rates among target population.