Sounds to me like (while pretty unenforceable) a good step. An easier one would be to not give the little urchins smart phones to begin with.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news...use-push/ar-BB1hgZNk

Florida lawmakers move to bar kids from social media in latest statehouse push

Florida’s House of Representatives has greenlit what could be one of the nation’s strictest laws aimed at protecting children online, passing a bill that would bar anyone 16 and younger from using social media.

While lawmakers voiced some concerns about enforcement, parental rights and First Amendment issues, the bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, and on Thursday moved to the state Senate, which is expected to take up the bill soon.

“They are targeting our babies,” said Rep. Michele Rayner, a Democrat from St. Petersburg who sponsored a similar bill last year. “You all know I’m a civil rights lawyer, but the fight to protect our children on social media is a fight I will take every day and twice on Sundays.”
It’s the latest in a slew of statehouse proposals to crack down on what is increasingly seen as a threat to children — and their childhood. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued an advisory last year declaring social media “an important driver” of a “national youth mental health crisis.” According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 95 percent of kids ages 13 to 17 are on social media, with more than a third of them admitting “they use social media ‘almost constantly.’”

The bill, if passed, is likely to encounter resistance in court. Critics, including free speech advocates, say such proposals are unconstitutional.

I’ll raise my own kids. I don’t need the government to help me.

quote:

Originally posted by Pale Horse:
I’ll raise my own kids. I don’t need the government to help me.

Goes to the heart of so many modern issues: Complete lack of parenting. We’re all fringe wackos now with our nonsense about responsibility and such.

quote:

According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 95 percent of kids ages 13 to 17 are on social media, with more than a third of them admitting “they use social media ‘almost constantly'."

Anyone's that's been out in public knows that the same is true for the 'adult' population!

As much as I loathe social media, I would oppose this. Goes to individual rights, freedoms, etc.

I have been advocating for cell phone providers to manufacture a “plain Jane” variety that does nothing but make calls. No texting. No camera. No music. No ANYTHING except a feature to store phone numbers and addresses and make calls.

The ONLY feature it might have (maybe) is Bluetooth for hands-free use to pair with the car while driving. At least that might deter the child from physically holding the phone while trying to drive.

Then it would be encumbent on the PARENT to buy this (inexpensive) phone for their minor child until said child graduates high school. After that, they can TikTok their f***ing life away for all I care.

Just an idea…

Part of the issue here is that companies put the “rights” of 13-17 year olds ahead of the parents’ rights to control their children’s devices.

While not a direct example of this, here is an example:
Two of my kids are taking college classes while in high school. Neither kid is 18, yet the college will not discuss my kids with me inless my kids ok it. Tech companies are doing the same thing.

A couple forums are all the 'social media' I do.

My 2 kids have cell phones, but they're 'dumb' phones via Gabb Wireless.
Oldest has a ZTE android, but it's the modern equivalent of a flip phone. A touch screen phone that can call, text, has an FM tuner and restricted audio app, and has a camera. No internet browser, no app store.
Middle daughter has their watch phone. Can only call the people loaded into it by us & can only send predefined text messages to the same group of contacts.

If nothing else, it's a way for them to be reachable & locatable [they have built in GPS tracking via the Gabb app], and it's good responsibility practice for later when they are allowed a 'real' phone.
Gabb also has an upgrade to the ZTE which is a Samsung with the same sort of restriction, but has an app store with 'kid safe' reviewed apps. Not sure if we'll go that route or just add her to our ATT plan when the Gabb contract is up.

Study after study after study proves the harm social media (and the internet as a whole) does to kids. Yet there is no regulation of it whatsoever. In fact, it is encouraged.

We don't let kids walk into the 7-11 and buy Penthouse and Playboy, yet they can look at the vilest pornography imaginable online to their heart's content for free.

We don't allow kids to purchase alcohol...for a reason. We don't allow kids to drive below a certain age...for a reason. But we do allow unfettered access to a medium that is doing great psychological harm to many children. Ain't nothing screwed up about that.

In a perfect world, the parents would solve this problem. We don't live in a perfect world. Many of the kids nowadays don't have parents (plural). Many parents have no idea how to parent. Many parents spend more time on social media than their sex trophies do. We live in a culture that embraces no accountability...for anything. IMO, it is good to see rational conservative people finally identifying a problem and doing something to solve it.

What!?!?! Something Might Be Misused?!?!?

We've Got To Do Something!!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

the vilest pornography imaginable online to their heart's content for free.

Link?

It seems that all government does is try to pass more laws just to justify their existence rather than let people live their lives.
Also agree it needs to be up to the parents not the government.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

the vilest pornography imaginable online to their heart's content for free.

Link?

Google is your friend.

Frankly, it’s a good idea - I do see the legal challenges.

But, if we get rid of the social media privileges, it might do something similar.

In general, minors are not allowed to sign lifetime contracts - but they do for all of their social media accounts.

This is odd.

Well if it is “for the children…” who are we to say no?

So glad I am on the back 9 of life. Wish I could have spent more time when liberty and freedom were more in vogue.

quote:

Originally posted by Pale Horse:
I’ll raise my own kids. I don’t need the government to help me.

This right here. Very well said, sir!

Be an adult. Be a parent. I 'm not blind and I'm not an idiot. I can come to this decision on my own, and enforce it on my own with my kids.

While I agree with the concept behind the law, making is a law is stupid. It's at best unenforceable, and at worst a massive overreach. The second you let the government start making laws about something like this, even if you agree with it in principle, you've now opened the door for them to do the same in areas where you don't agree.

Also fixing this single issue won't solve the underlying problem, even if it was enforceable. If you've got parents who aren't involved enough to prevent their kids from doing stupid stuff on social media, even if you could make them (which you can't), there are numerous other facets of parenting that they're inevitably failing at, too.

I agree with the concept, I agree it is wildly unenforceable, I disagree that it is an overreach. We set limits on children all the time as a society. PG13 movies is an easy example. It’s a movie for fucks sake. Anything on social media is potentially way worse.

That’s me being devils advocate. Writing laws that won’t be enforced is beyond dumb. It leads to ignoring laws that will/should be enforced. Bad policy.

It is still societies job to set acceptable limits on behavior and access. This horse is out of the barn though.

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
Well if it is “for the children…” who are we to say no?

So you'd support doing away with laws against child molestation then? They are just "for the children" after all.

quote:

So glad I am on the back 9 of life. Wish I could have spent more time when liberty and freedom were more in vogue.

Can't say that I disagree with you there. It'd be nice if we lived in a society where laws weren't necessary. Unfortunately, a civil and a moral society needs laws with teeth, otherwise we don't have a civil and a moral society. Just look around...It's human nature.

quote:

Sounds to me like (while pretty unenforceable) a good step. An easier one would be to not give the little urchins smart phones to begin with.

I have an idea, similar to yours:
Deny students access to smart phones during the school day. If they bring them, turn them off and put them in a class lock box and return them at the end of the school day.

When my son was 9 we got him an iPod touch and a little later an iMac. We enabled parental controls and content filtering. I tested the filtering by doing various "searches" and found it was pretty robust. I also had to OK various things like app installs and other stuff with the parental control password. The iMac was set up with me as admin and him as a user.

Then my now ex-wife gave him a hand-me-down iPhone a few years later and I think she forgot to enable the features but I can't remember completely but we re-enabled them. Once he turned 18 I turned off the controls on his iMac and he moved to a new iPhone that was "open".

However, I am fairly certain other parents didnt do this stuff so various friends probably had completely "open" iPhones and computers.

He's a good kind and has avoided social media due to the drama involved.

I fully favor a ban on social media for kids. No different than not letting kids into R-rated movies or other age based restrictions. Social media is responsible for exponential increases in "sudden onset gender dysphoria", increases in depression & anxiety, suicides due to cyber bullying, stupid "tiktok challenges" like eating tide pods, and you name it.

Perhaps "kid friendly" social media is something that could be created.

Not that China, which created Tik-Tok, does not allow kids to use it like we do here in the U.S. kids are restricted to educational videos (well, CCP propaganda) and use is limited to a relatively small number of hours a week.