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 “While England endeavors to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?” (Walden in Henry David Thoreau, 1854)

Dear HKMS Families,

The Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year is "brain-rot." They define it as  "(n.) Supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration."  The rise in the popularity of this phrase is correlated with the rise in social media usage, especially Tik-Tok and YouTube.  The endless scrolling of low value content and the subsequent impact on attention, concentration, memory, and productivity are evident if you've ever pulled your child off of social media.  

In an effort to combat the impact of social media on children, the U.S. Senate recently passed the Kids Online Safety Act (or KOSA), which is awaiting action in the House.  I encourage you to consider throwing your support of passage of this bill. While certainly not a perfect bill, KOSA does offer some important protections such as:

• Requiring platforms to add personally identifiable information protections and controls for children and parents,

• Disable addictive features (i.e., likes, endless scrolling) and algorithmic recommendations,

• Gives parents new controls for limiting and reporting harmful content and features,

• Obligates platforms to prevent and mitigate specific dangers to children including the promotion of suicide, eating disorders, sexual exploitation, and illegal products (i.e., alcohol, vapes, cannabis)

• Requires transparency in how they are incorporating these protections for minors into their platform.

Unfortunately, the current KOSA bill falls short in one significant area, verified age restrictions.  Right now the age of internet adulthood is 13.  KOSA does offer protections for children under 13 (similar to the current COPPA law), but the restrictions for those 13 and over are limited to a simple checkbox. That means, 13 year old children can legally access ANY content on the internet as long as they check a box, no verification is required.  Some may say, age verification is impossible, or, it could be a privacy concern.  However, Australia just passed a law that requires platforms to disallow children 16 and under, to develop age verification processes, or face up to $32 million dollars in fines, per instance!  At one time in our country, minors could buy alcohol and tobacco, but we have figured out ways to all but stop those practices.  I had high hopes KOPA would offer similar protections for children online, but it looks like that may have to wait for the next effort.   Until then, it is up to each one of us to be super vigilant, even suspicious, in order to protect our kids from these addictive and dangerous platforms.  

I will end my letter with one final request.  Our 8th grade class council students will be traveling to the James J. Curiale School in Bridgeport next Thursday, December 19th.  They spend the day as teachers' assistants and end their visit with the delivery of toys!  It is a life changing event for our students and truly reminds us all of what is important.  They are a little under halfway (160) to their goal of 400 toys.  This amount would allow them to give a special gift to every student at that school.  As you are out and about this weekend, please consider picking up some toys for this special event.  Thank you for your generosity and support in making this special day happen for our 8th graders and the students of the Curiale school.  

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Steve Clapp, Ed.D.

(p.s. ELF extended their holiday auction next Tuesday...great bargains in there for those last minute shoppers!)

'24-'25 HKMS Extracurricular Offerings 

See flyers of current clubs below the chart.