A Senate Committee is scheduled to take up a bill to establish certain controls to protect minors on social media.
Sen. Patrick McMath (R-Covington) calls his SB162 the "SOCIAL Act,"--SOCIAL, an acronym for "Secure Online Child Interaction and Age Limitation." Sen. McMath says his bill would affect any platform with 5-million or more users.
“That’s gonna be your Facebook, your Tik Tok and your Instagram," Sen. McMath said. "It would require parental consent for minors to be on there. I set the age at 16 and under.”
McMath’s bill would require social media platforms to restrict certain content from the view of minors and impose an “online curfew” for youths on such apps and websites. He says his bill would impose fines of $2,500 per occurrence for violations.
“It gives the Louisiana Justice Department--the Attorney General’s office--some pretty significant teeth to go after these social media platforms if they are not complying with this law if it does become law," Sen. McMath said.
McMath says a former Facebook employee testified to Congress that they knew their platform could be psychologically harmful to kids, yet they did nothing. He says he’s aware that some will oppose his bill as an infringement on free speech, but he stands behind the idea.
“Doing nothing is far worse than trying to do something, and there is a balance between free speech and protecting the public," Sen. McMath said.
Sen. McMath’s SOCIAL Act is scheduled before The Senate Committee on Commerce & Consumer Protection on Tuesday.
