Last year, Facebook’s internal research found that Instagram, which the company owns, was “toxic” for many children and that “teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression,” according to The Wall Street Journal. It is well documented that children are uniquely vulnerable to the most harmful impacts of social media and other technology platforms, contributing to mental health problems, body image issues, and bullying. And yet social media companies continue to market to children. Internal documents from Facebook show the company has been targeting children as young as 6 years old. When the government does crackdown on technology companies for violating children’s rights, the companies often are subjected to negligible fines that don’t require them to admit guilt or properly recoup those that were harmed. For instance, in 2019 YouTube paid a $170 million fine for illegally harvesting children’s personal information and making millions in profit by using their data to sell targeted ads to kids. That same year, TikTok was fined $5.7 million for illegally collecting kids’ personal information. Neither settlement required the companies to admit guilt.

Meanwhile, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has warned that the pandemic is having a “devastating” impact on the mental health of young people and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that last year suicide attempts by young girls were up 50% compared with pre-pandemic levels. Young people continue to slip through the cracks of our educational system. More than 4.5 million are considered disconnected youth, meaning teens and young adults 16 to 24 years old who are not in school, a training program, or employed.

While the pandemic and rising technology use have put young people in crisis, decades of underinvestment in children and youth services have left families, schools, and the government with limited resources to support our kids. Early education programs have reached a breaking point. Tens of thousands of child care providers have shut their doors and there are 131,000 fewer child care workers today than in early 2020. The massively profitable and relatively undertaxed technology sector presents significant opportunities to generate the revenue needed to rebuild our systems of support for children and youth.

Voters across the political spectrum support the idea of taxing powerful technology platforms and using the revenue to improve opportunities for children and youth. A poll we commissioned with our partner organization Children’s Funding Accelerator, and conducted by FM3 Research, finds that nearly 70% of voters support a tax on the sales of digital advertising to raise revenue for children and youth services. Similarly, 64% of voters support levying a tax on the sales of personal data collected by technology companies and dedicating the revenue to programs and services to support child and youth development. Support for both of these potential taxes on technology companies is consistently bipartisan—majorities of Democratic, Independent, and Republican voters alike say they would support a tax on digital advertising or personal data sales if revenue were dedicated to children and youth.

While the five major technology companies made record profits during the pandemic, states are beginning to take on the issue. This year, the nation’s first digital advertising tax took effect in Maryland. The tax applies to revenue collected from digital advertisements displayed within the state and could raise an estimated $250 million in its first full year for the state’s education system. The new revenue will go toward the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which will make significant investments in K-12 and early childhood education including providing free preschool to low-income families. The infusion of revenue will be critical to the state, which has struggled to support early education programs during the pandemic. More than 750 child care providers in Maryland closed their doors during the last two years, according to The Washington Post.

Maryland structured the tax progressively, meaning that companies with higher global revenues, like Facebook and Google, will pay a higher percentage of their advertising revenue. Internet companies earning less than $100 million a year in global revenue will be exempt altogether, helping to level the playing field for newer and smaller companies. The chief sponsor of the legislation Sen. Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) told The Washington Post, “these platforms that have grown fast, and so enormously, should also have to contribute to the civic infrastructure that helped them become so successful.” Facebook, Amazon, Google, and others are suing the state, claiming that the tax violates federal law and is unconstitutional. Litigation is ongoing.

Across the country, other states are interested in similar legislation and are watching the lawsuit closely. Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Texas, West Virginia, Montana, and New York have introduced bills to impose taxes on digital advertisements. A handful of states including Washington, Oregon, Indiana, and New York also are considering legislation to tax the sale of personal information. These new revenue sources offer states a potential opportunity to fund early education, after-school programs, youth mental health, and youth workforce development efforts that have been chronically underfunded and put under enormous strain during the pandemic.

Josh Weinstock is a policy associate at Children’s Funding Project.