GOP Lawmaker Introduces Bill Blocking Children Under 16 From Using Social Media

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) delivers remarks during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, on March 21, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a pair of measures that would mandate social media companies to meet several requirements before they are allowed to offer accounts to Americans on their platforms.

The first proposal (pdf), titled “Making Age-Verification Technology Uniform, Robust, and Effective Act,” or the “MATURE Act,” would impose a minimum age requirement of 16 for all social media users in the United States.

The measure would mandate social media companies to verify users’ full legal name and date of birth, as well as a scan, image, or upload of a government-issued identification that confirms this information before they are able to create an account.

If enacted, existing accounts won’t be affected, and social media platforms “may continue to allow an individual to maintain and use an account” without verifying that the user is 16 or older.

In addition, the bill adds that social media operators would be prohibited from selling, transferring, or using “any information collected from an individual for the purpose of verifying the individual’s identity and age for any other purpose.”

The second bill (pdf), titled the “Federal Social Media Research Act,” seeks to commission a government report on the “effects of social media on users under age 18.”

The Republican lawmaker noted that the measure would also fund a longitudinal study to track the effects of social media on children to be submitted no later than 10 years after the law is enacted.

“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,” Hawley said in a statement.

“It’s time to give parents the weapons they need to strike back,” he added. “That starts with an age restriction for social media. And it’s long past time for well-funded research on the scale of the problem. We must set the precedent that these companies can no longer take advantage of our children.”

While most social media companies currently require children to be at least 13, the platforms don’t normally require proof of age.

Social Networking Addiction

A recent study (pdf) published in JAMA Pediatrics explored what the long-term effects could be for adolescents who frequently check their social media.

The study found that 78 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds check their devices hourly, while 46 percent report checking “almost constantly,” leaving adolescents “uniquely vulnerable” to addictive scrolling.

A girl plays a game on her phone in Stamford, Conn., on March 25, 2017. (John Moore/Getty Images)

“Adolescents’ habitual checking of social media may be exacerbating an already enhanced neural response to the anticipation of salient social feedback,” the study says. “Additionally, the motivational salience of social contexts may undermine adolescents’ ability to engage in cognitive control and, subsequently, to regulate their behaviors.”

A report from De Montfort University in Leicester, England, found that children are losing the equivalent of a full night’s sleep a week because their bedtime routines are being delayed by increased social media use.

Hawley isn’t the first official seeking to bar social media companies from allowing children to use their platforms.

In December 2022, Texas state Rep. Jared Patterson (R-District 106) filed HB 896 (pdf), legislation that would force social media sites to verify a user’s age with a photo ID and allow parents to request that their child’s account be deactivated. If enacted, that bill would require all social media users to be 18 to create an account.

Patterson claimed that social media is harmful and addictive to children and compared it to cigarette use before 1964, when scientists started warning about tobacco.

“Once thought to be perfectly safe for users, social media access to minors has led to remarkable rises in self-harm, suicide, and mental health issues.”

Epoch Times reporter Bryan Jung contributed to this report.

From NTD News