Family Tech Ethics

Family tech ethics represents a critical frontier in protecting families across generations in our increasingly digital world, essential for promoting safety, privacy, healthy development, connected aging, parental rights, and family autonomy. CDE’s Family Tech Ethics faculty–including Meg Leta Jones, Laura DeNardis, and Cal Newport–are among the world’s leading experts advancing research and policy engagement at the intersection of technology design and flourishing families. Many family technology policy decisions involve fundamental ethical concerns, such as collection practices around children’s data, technologies supporting and safeguarding aging family members, educational technology governance in schools, genetic and genealogical practices, social media platform design choices, and AI integration.

Read the Family Tech Ethics Blog, “The Family Circuit,” at CDE’s Substack

Meg Leta Jones

Family Protection and Privacy

“The fight to preserve state AI regulation and protect children” in The Hill on June 25, 2025 on AI law moratorium (arguing kids will need state level protections)

“Supreme Court upholds childproofing porn sites” on June 27, 2025 in The Conversation about USSC case Paxton v. Free Speech Coalition (age verification for porn sites)

The Attention Economy: How Big Tech Firms Exploit Children and Hurt Families – recording of panel at FTC event June 4, 2025 (begins at 1:53:45)

Are We Tumbling Toward an Adults-Only Internet? with CCT MA candidate and Fritz Fellow Mac Milin Kiran and Cal Newport

Learn more about Professor Leta Jones

Cal Newport

The Struggle against Technology Addiction

“Is social media more like cigarettes or junk food?” in the January 22, 205 New Yorker

“Are Parents (Finally) Ready to Fight Smartphones?” Episode 358 (June 23, 2025) of “Deep Questions with Cal Newport” (podcast)

Learn more about Prof. Newport

Laura DeNardis

Ethical Issues in Human Relationships with Technology


Dr. DeNardis and Dr. Anupam Chander will work on a TPP (Tech and Public Policy)-funded project on “Governance of Companion Robots” with Kyoto University.

DeNardis gives convocation address to Georgetown undergraduates and families, stressing the importance of authenticity as a value “at the core of most cyber security concerns”

CDE Director Laura DeNardis advises young women on AI and school

Learn more about Professor DeNardis