As a father of four young kids, Louisiana State Senator Patrick McMath (R-Covington) has seen enough evidence on social media to file a measure that would require parental consent before children can download apps. It would also create blackout times to keep kids offline.
McMath says it is not a ban, but a way to give parents the chance to make informed decisions.
“We have a mental health crisis not only in the state but this country and more and more evidence is pointing to the detrimental impact that social media is having on developing minds,” McMath said.
Research reported in the journal JAMA Psychiatry found that adolescents who use social media more than three hours per day may be at risk of internalizing problems. McMath says the social media curfew would be from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. and would give parents a path to take companies to court who they believe were negligent in children being harmed.
“There was a whistleblower of Facebook that testified to Congress that Facebook knew that their platform could be deemed harmful to children and they did nothing about it,” said McMath.
The proposal also outlaws companies from storing data of minors, or advertising to minor account holders. McMath says his bill is modeled after Utah’s laws passed this month, but overall, it is designed to be a guardrail for developing minds.
“We’ve had rising rates of suicide and bullying. You’re seeing some of this play out in our everyday lives. It’s not the final solution but hopefully, it plays its role,” the lawmaker said.
The bill would place age and time restrictions only on social media platforms that have five million or more users. Congress has so far been unable to pass national privacy laws and restrictions, leaving some states to take action.
