U.S. News
Sen. Josh Hawley proposes ban on social media for kids under 16
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced a bill that would create a legal age for children to be allowed on social media.
- Hawley argued “big tech companies put their profits ahead of protecting kids online.”
- Hawley’s The Making Age-Verification Technology Uniform, Robust, and Effective (MATURE) Act, would require social media platforms to not allow anyone to create an account unless they can verify that the user is at least 16 years old.
Sen. Josh Hawley proposed a bill on Tuesday to ban children under 16 years old from using social media.
Entitled the Making Age-Verification Technology Uniform, Robust, and Effective (MATURE) Act, the bill would require social media platforms to not allow an individual to create an account unless they can verify that the user is at least 16 years old.
The platforms should require users who want to create accounts to provide their full legal name, date of birth and a scan, image or upload of a government-issued identification that displays their name and birth date.
“Children suffer every day from the effects of social media. At best, Big Tech companies are neglecting our children’s health and monetizing their personal information. At worst, they are complicit in their exploitation and manipulation. It’s time to give parents the weapons they need to strike back,” Hawley said in a release.
In the proposed legislation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is obliged to conduct regular audits at least once every six months to ensure that the social media platforms are complying. The FTC audits would be conucted by comparing the age verification data from a random sample of all accounts since the previous audit to state and federal records to confirm the users’ ages.
The Republican senator also introduced the Federal Social Media Research Act on Tuesday to commission a government report on the “harm of social media on kids.” Hawley said there will be well-funded research on the scale of social media’s effect on children.
That legislation would also finance a longitudinal study to monitor the effect of social media over 10 years.
“For me, this is about protecting kids, protecting their mental health, protecting their safety,” Hawley told NBC News on Tuesday. “There’s ample evidence to this effect that big tech companies put their profits ahead of protecting kids online.”
Source: NBC News
John J
February 20, 2023 at 6:58 am
And this will protect them from WHAT?
Mike Tracy
February 20, 2023 at 7:14 am
From being groomed and indoctrinated by transgenderism and homosexuality and woke bullshit among several other violence related issues like blm and Antifa. Kinda for the same reason responsible parents don’t want their children watching all the same shit on tv! John J. Anybody who doesn’t understand that is either really young and naive, or really stupid!
K9Trainer
February 20, 2023 at 6:03 pm
Did you know most schools have a social media account, set-up by students, where they post videos of fights? Students plan attacks, usually multiple people beating up one person, record the beating, then post it on social media to further humiliate the person attacked. This has even led to students committing suicide. Taking away social media may not stop the fighting, but at least these students wouldn’t be able to publicize them – in competition with other schools for “the worst fight” and “most views” of the videos. Maybe they would stop planning the attacks altogether, and the only fights would be the ones that occur naturally.
Phrunobulax
February 20, 2023 at 7:03 am
Too much time on your hands Hitler Whorely?
Don
February 20, 2023 at 8:17 am
Proposing and passing are two different things,….especially with RINO McConnell in the senate.
Leo virgil Rowland
February 20, 2023 at 8:33 am
How can you enforce it?
Mary Geiger
February 20, 2023 at 10:55 am
Sounds like a sensible bill, but I doubt dems will allow it. Some rinos won’t either. They aren’t into protecting the young people, they only want to use them. But if it would delay the brainwashing of the young people, why not? There is too much focus on children’s lives by strangers, stopping it at the social media doors is a pretty good idea.