For twenty years, CCFC has been working to prevent a future where children’s play, education, and friendships exist on digital platforms, displacing the hands-on, face-to-face connections critical to healthy development. Now, that future has suddenly arrived. To whatever extent they could before, families can no longer “opt out” of commercial technology. But with your support on this special Giving Tuesday, we can help families build resilience and stop Big Tech from encroaching even further into kids’ lives.
CCFC is committed to helping you navigate this new now. Since mid-March, we’ve produced four Action Network Live! webinars for parents, families, and early childhood educators in quarantine. And because screen-free time and space is both harder to find and more important than ever, we’ve reimagined Screen-Free Week as Screen-Free Saturdays: one day a week, every week, to help families decompress and reconnect.
We’re also working to make sure the new now doesn’t become the new normal. We’re demanding to know what companies like Google, Disney, and Zoom are doing with all the data they’re collecting from kids right now. We’re planning a fall re-launch of our Screens in Schools Action Kit to protect and strengthen the real-life, hands-on educational experiences kids and families need. And with the support of the Oak Foundation, we’re about to embark on a multi-year campaign to expand online privacy protections for children and teens.
The pandemic has made the limits of technology more palpable than ever, but it will take active, concerted efforts to stop the digital takeover of childhood. That’s exactly why CCFC exists. We’re fighting for a future where kids learn from skilled teachers, not apps and algorithms; where primary relationships take place IRL instead of on ad-supported platforms; and where kids aren’t “content creators” beholden to commercial interests, but artists and dreamers and creative beings in their own right.
Will you join us? It’s not an exaggeration to say CCFC needs you: more than 85% of our budget comes from individuals like you, and we never take any corporate funding. If you can, please support our work today!