Senate Committee Passes Bill Requiring Age Verification, Parental Consent for Social Media Access

Legislation, ,

On Tuesday the Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee passed a bill that would help protect minors in Arkansas from accessing social media sites without parental consent.

S.B. 396, the Social Media Safety Act, by Sen. Tyler Dees (R – Siloam Springs) and Rep. Jon Eubanks (R – Paris) says that social media companies must verify users’ ages and cannot grant minors access to the social media platform without parental consent.

The bill contains protections for user privacy. A social media company that violated the law could be held liable.

More and more, social media platforms simply are not a place for children — at least, not without parental supervision.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has published an analysis determining that social media is a major cause of mental illness in girls.

As he wrote, “The hours girls spent each day on Instagram were taken from sleep, exercise, and time with friends and family. What did we think would happen to them?”

On the TikTok platform — which is very popular with youth — The New York Times reports that teen users developed tics similar to Tourette’s syndrome during COVID lockdowns.

Researchers are still analyzing the reasons why, but the consensus seems to be that this was a social contagion that spread online at a time when some teens were using social media more than ever.

In December, news outlets reported how TikTok’s algorithm was suggesting videos that promoted self-harm and eating disorders to teenagers.

A recent CDC report found 16% of high school students were electronically bullied in 2021 through texting, Instagram, Facebook, or other social media platforms.

The list goes on.

Legislation like S.B. 396 would help parents and social media companies protect children from harmful content online.

The bill now goes to the entire Arkansas Senate for consideration.

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Good Bill Would Require Age Verification, Parental Consent for Social Media Sites

Legislation,

A good bill filed at the Arkansas Legislature last week would help protect minors in Arkansas from accessing social media sites without parental consent.

S.B. 396, the Social Media Safety Act, by Sen. Tyler Dees (R – Siloam Springs) and Rep. Jon Eubanks (R – Paris) requires social media companies to verify users’ ages and not to grant minors access to the social media platform without parental consent.

The bill contains protections for user privacy. A social media company that violated the law could be held liable.

More and more, social media platforms simply are not a place for children — at least, not without parental supervision.

Just last month social psychologist Jonathan Haidt published an analysis that delved into a decade’s worth of data and research on mental health.

His conclusion? Social media is a major cause of mental illness in girls.

As he wrote, “The hours girls spent each day on Instagram were taken from sleep, exercise, and time with friends and family. What did we think would happen to them?”

On the TikTok platform — which is very popular with youth — The New York Times reports that teen users developed tics similar to Tourette’s syndrome during COVID lockdowns.

Researchers are still analyzing the reasons why, but the consensus seems to be that this was a social contagion that spread online at a time when some teens were using social media more than ever.

Besides hurting mental health, there is other harmful content on social media.

In December, news outlets reported how TikTok’s algorithm was suggesting videos that promoted self-harm and eating disorders to teenagers.

Occult videos on TikTok — labeled “WitchTok” — have garnered an astounding 18.7 billion views.

A recent CDC report found 16% of high school students were electronically bullied in 2021 through texting, Instagram, Facebook, or other social media platform.

The list goes on.

Legislation like S.B. 396 would help parents and social media companies protect children from harmful content online.

You Can Read S.B. 396 Here.

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We Got Our Facebook Ads Account Back

Big Tech, ,

Back about a month ago Facebook disabled our advertising account without warning and with virtually no explanation. After appealing that decision, we got our advertising account back — again with virtually no explanation.

Family Council is authorized to run political ads on Facebook. From time to time we use our Facebook ad account to boost the stories and videos that we share on social media to make sure that people see them. We’ve never had trouble before with Facebook refusing to approve our ads.

On November 2, Facebook sent us a terse message abruptly disabling our ad account. We requested a review of that decision.

After a few days, Facebook sent us another terse email saying our advertising account had been reinstated.

We asked Facebook for an explanation outlining why our account had been disabled in the first place. But we never received any more information. To this day, we aren’t sure what we did that Facebook felt ran afoul of their advertising standards. We cannot find anything on our Facebook page that violates the social media giant’s policies.

Coincidentally, Facebook’s decision to disable our ad account came shortly after we submitted a request to advertise one of our recent videos about the lawsuit against the Jonesboro Public Library. Nothing in that video violates Facebook’s policy, but it’s the only post we had tried to advertise recently.

For now, though, Family Council’s Facebook advertising account is back online.

All of this underscores two things:

First, that tech companies seem to have virtually no accountability when it comes to suppressing or throttling free speech.

And second, that conservatives should not depend on social media for news and information.

That’s why we encourage all of our friends and supporters to join our traditional mailing list. We’ll send you regular update letters filled with information about current events in Arkansas.

If you aren’t on our regular mailing list, click here, and we will add you to the list today. Our update letters are completely free; we never charge for them.

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