Testimony

Written Testimony for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation — "Plugged Out: Examining the Impact of Technology on America's Youth"

Jan 2026 🇺🇸 U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

Jenny Radesky submitted written testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee's hearing on technology's impact on American youth, drawing on her own University of Michigan research lab's studies of young children's app and YouTube use. She described a pattern in which digital products are built for adults and retrofitted for children only after harms surface, and argued for shifting the policy conversation from raw screen-time limits toward child-centered design standards for the platforms themselves. In the hearing's discussion, she raised particular concern about AI companion apps, saying children's drive to attach to others makes them vulnerable to chatbots that mimic relationships, and pointed to a pending Michigan bill restricting companion-chatbot features linked to self-harm, sexual content, and engagement-optimization as a model for state-level action pending federal standards. She called for stronger data-privacy enforcement and industry design accountability.

99% of children played apps with a manipulative design feature

Radesky testified that in her lab's study of the 133 highest-duration apps used by preschoolers, almost all children played at least one app containing a design feature intended to prolong play, encourage purchases, or drive ad interaction.

67% of Android apps sent data to up to 33 third-party domains

She cited her team's finding that most Android apps used by preschool-aged children transmitted persistent device identifiers to multiple third-party advertising and data-broker domains, more often among lower-income households.

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CITATION

Radesky, Jenny. Written Testimony for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, hearing "Plugged Out: Examining the Impact of Technology on America's Youth." January 15, 2026.

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