Utah social media law will require parental permission for teens to open accounts

[midian182]

A hot potato: How do you limit teens' exposure to social media? Utah thinks it has the solution: a law requiring kids to have parental consent if they want to use apps like TikTok and Snap. Not only would permission be needed to create an account, but the measure could introduce curfews, age verification features, and other restrictions.

Two laws signed by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox Thursday contain some extreme restrictions, including blocking under-18 from using social media between 10:30 pm and 6:30 am, reminiscent of China's curfew on the same age group that limits their online gaming time to 3 hours per week. However, parents or guardians would be able to change the times.

Under the new law, social media owners like Meta would be required to gain a parent's permission before a teen could create an account on a platform. Companies would also be barred "from using a design or feature that causes a minor to have an addiction to the company's social media platform."

Parents will also have more control over what their children do on social media, with the new measure requiring companies to give parents access to their kids' posts, messages, and responses.

The New York Times reports that Republican Utah senate member Michael K. McKell, who sponsored the bill, said the statute was intended to address a "mental health crisis" among American teenagers. It's also designed to protect teens from bullying and sexual exploitation.

Other states, including Arkansas, Texas, Ohio, and Louisiana, are considering similar social media bills, though it's unclear how these will be enforced – the Texas bill would outright ban social media accounts for minors. The Utah measure, which applies to social networks with at least five million account holders worldwide, is scheduled to take effect on March 1 next year.

Questions over the negative impact social media has on younger users have been around for years, intensifying since the Meta/Instagram scandal in which it was revealed that the company was aware of just how damaging Instagram can be to teenagers. Most platforms allow users to join at the age of 13, but US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy believes this is too young.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/98062-utah-social-media-law-require-parental-permission-teens.html

 

[yRaz]

I'm not saying unrestricted access to the internet is a good thing for a young mind, but kids aren't going to be kids forever. Being able to get into a little harmless trouble, look at some things you aren't suppose to and stay up too late talking to your friends on an instant messenger? All perfectly healthy.

You guys see how I turned out so maybe this isn't the best thing, but my parents stopped babying me around 11-12 years old and gave me some autonomy. That was their choice, not the states. In Utah, my parents wouldn't have the option to give me autonomy.

There is a trend of "mommy will always be here to protect you but you can never grow up" and it's no good at all. Laws like this only encourage that kind of thinking. Kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for.

 

[Uncle Al]

But how to enforce it? Perhaps only giving the kids a "non-smart" phone might be a good start!

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I'm not saying unrestricted access to the internet is a good thing for a young mind, but kids aren't going to be kids forever. Being able to get into a little harmless trouble, look at some things you aren't suppose to and stay up too late talking to your friends on an instant messenger? All perfectly healthy.

You guys see how I turned out so maybe this isn't the best thing, but my parents stopped babying me around 11-12 years old and gave me some autonomy. That was their choice, not the states. In Utah, my parents wouldn't have the option to give me autonomy.

There is a trend of "mommy will always be here to protect you but you can never grow up" and it's no good at all. Laws like this only encourage that kind of thinking. Kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for.

Looking at naughty pictures or a little harmless shenanigans is fine, but we're not seeing that. We are seeing kids, sometimes as young as 12, utterly addicted to social media. Social media is designed to be predatory, to sink its fingers into your psyche and not let go. We know this, between the patents filed by big social media companies like meta, and the psychologists hired to help make it addictive, same thing is done in mobile games. It, quite frankly, should not be used by people under 18 (or ever, but I digress). It's addictive to young, formulating minds, just like drugs, alcohol, ece, and it's been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt at this point to encourage depression, narcissism, and maladaptive behavior that has become so commonplace today.

I'm totally in favor of treating social media just like any other substance, limit it to 21 and up. Or hell, limit it entirely, it doesnt do anyone much good and is a major factor in why everyone to day is so disconnected with the world around them.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

But how to enforce it? Perhaps only giving the kids a "non-smart" phone might be a good start!

Or give them a smart phone but actually manage it. Dont let them install apps you dont approve of, they have to get your permission to add contacts, ece. The modern phone industry has lots of tools to manage these devices, parents just dont use them.

 

[p51d007]

Shoot, you don't think kids will figure out a way around this?

 

[amghwk]

Kids nowadays are smarter than their parents, especially when it comes to social media.

How the heck the registration process is going to guarantee the consent is from the parents anyway??

Only some kids are using child accounts. Most don't. While others already learnt to change the account to adult ones from..."social media" like YouTube..... (facepalm)

 

[Hodor]

He'll be using his dad's account anyway. There will be no detectable anomaly in usage since they'll be visiting the same porn sites.

 

[nismo91]

I don't understand, what they're gonna do, ask for SSN or credit card when you sign up for an account? I mean how will the app know if the users are from Utah and not from other states? or maybe the kid will sign up and set the region to mexico and change it later.