Amid growing backlash against social media platforms, including legislation targeting Chinese-owned TikTok and other apps, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said in a Feb. 7 interview with NBC News that he plans to sponsor legislation that will set a minimum age of 16 for users of social media and that he also plans to commission a study on the impact of social media on young users’ well-being.
Hawley made his announcement right before President Biden’s State of the Union address, and just days after some of the harshest public criticism directed at TikTok, as Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged the Biden administration to take more aggressive action to monitor TikTok’s gathering of data and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) influence over content shared on the platform.
