Meta and Google Fund Sesame Street, Girl Scouts and Highlights to Teach Kids Digital Moderation and Safety

Meta and Google sponsored children's brands including Sesame Street, Girl Scouts and Highlights magazine with tens of millions of dollars to deliver lessons about personal responsibility to hundreds of thousands of children and parents. The partnerships involved the organizations using colorful magazines, popular characters and catchy songs to teach technology moderation even as the companies' properties generate billions of dollars in advertising revenue from businesses marketing to minors.

The first case to reach trial ended with a $6 million judgment against Meta and Google.

S. ” Reuters reviewed thousands of pages of company documents made public through lawsuits. Meta's strategy to partner with outside groups to promote positive messages about technology began several years ago.

In a 2018 draft document, internal user experience researchers at Meta deliberated how to respond to accusations that social media companies were designing addictive products. Researchers proposed asking external experts to identify Facebook features that could have a negative effect on users over time.

They also proposed forming an alliance where a third party could vouch for the thoroughness and relevance of Meta's approach for targeting addiction claims.

Meta said it did not act on the idea of forming such an alliance. In a 2024 statement, Google pledged to spend at least $20 million supporting groups that promote digital well-being, including Highlights Magazine and Sesame Workshop.

A 2024 special edition of Highlights magazine sponsored by Google includes instructions on how to make a smartphone sleeping bag. Google provided an extra 250,000 copies of the special Highlights edition to organizations such as Save the Children and Reading is Fundamental.

The Girl Scouts’ digital safety curriculum sponsored by Meta’s Instagram requires girls to complete age-specific lessons to earn a digital leadership badge. The middle-school-aged Girl Scouts curriculum instructs girls to track their screen time and create digital content to support a topic they care about.

Last year, Google began sponsoring its own Girl Scouts patch called the Be Internet Awesome Fun Patch.

Tiffany Munzer, the lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2026 digital media guidelines, said the content is important for kids and families though companies still need to remove features such as algorithmic recommendations that make it harder for kids to put their devices down.

Some of the materials promoted by Meta and Google do include digital safety instructions, including reminders to set strong passwords and avoid scams.