The US tech industry is full of companies fiercely competing to offer the best products and services that will attract the public’s attention. Several are especially focused on the young audience—especially in the social media segment. That said, it seems that US teens don’t really trust big tech firms.
The non-profit organization Common Sense Media surveyed 1,000 teenagers about their trust in tech corporations. The questions touched on topics about ethical service design, data use policies, and personal property/mental health care. The results showed a clear trend of distrust, which is not really surprising. The survey mentioned companies like Google, Apple, Meta, TikTok, and Microsoft.
Big tech companies have lost the trust of teens in the US
In the “Care about your mental health and well-being” question, a resounding 64% of teens expressed little or no trust. 62% of respondents also don’t believe that big tech companies care about protecting their security properly if it affects their profits.
Plus, 53% of young respondents believe that tech firms don’t care about making ethical or responsible design decisions in their products and services. This can be especially noticeable in social media apps. These platforms are often designed to cause addiction in users. The young segment may be the most prone to generating addictions to these types of apps. This section also includes the implementation of UI dark patterns that seek to make you click on a certain option through manipulation.
Regarding privacy, 52% of young respondents don’t believe that companies will keep their data safe. Additionally, 51% believe that companies are not fair enough when considering the needs of different users.
Little confidence in the ethical implementation of AI
Common Sense Media also asked teenagers about artificial intelligence. More specifically, the survey raised the issue of responsible decision-making by big tech companies regarding the implementation of artificial intelligence in their products and services. The results showed that 47% have little or no confidence that this is happening. 39% said they had at least some trust in big tech companies regarding ethical AI implementation. On the other hand, 14% were not sure what to answer.
Although the use of AI-powered services has been increasing massively for some time, it seems that young people still have doubts about whether their data is being used correctly. These concerns may grow following recent developments related to DeepSeek.
