Social Media

Age verification laws create myriad privacy risks, and requiring platforms to collect government IDs or face scans opens the door to potential exploitation by hackers and enemy governments.

In Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Utah, lawmakers this session are trying to balance digital privacy and children’s mental health issues as they seek to implement social media mandates.

Clinical psychologist Lisa Strohman connects technology overuse with rampant mental health problems in young people, and she says they will need help from parents, teachers and administrators to deal with this.

The bill would prevent kids younger than 16 from creating a social media account without parental consent as well as compel social media companies to better monitor group chats with minors.

Complete bans, age verification and new online tools are in play as government, the tech industry and parents contend for influence and control in determining how to keep minors safe online.

Lawmakers are looking at data collection from minors, and how tech companies are using it. They’re also pushing for default privacy settings for social media users. Trade groups are opposed.

The president of a private liberal arts college in Maine is urging students not to use Blind Tiger, a social media app through which some anonymous users are heaping abuse and hateful messages on students.

Amendments to the Utah Social Media Regulation Act would allow lawsuits if it can be proven that “addictive social media algorithms” contributed to the worsening of a child’s mental health. Related laws have been stopped in two other states.

University of North Carolina System President Peter Hans plans to block Yik Yak, Fizz, Whisper and Sidechat from campus IT infrastructure. He likened them to drugs whose harmful effects are becoming more well understood.

On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a ban on social media for kids under 16 and lawmakers introduced new legislation that would let 14- and 15-year-olds access social media with a parent’s consent. The ban would still apply to children 13 and under.

The bill would bar people under 16 from setting up accounts on most social media platforms. House Speaker Paul Renner and Gov. Ron DeSantis are collaborating to address the latter’s concerns, which include protecting parental rights.

During a recent class discussion in River Ridge High School’s New Teacher Academy, however, students suggested that the adult decision-makers have some misplaced priorities.

The legislators are wading into an ongoing public debate that involves constitutional rights, consumer protections, parental responsibility and quickly evolving technologies.

City officials have announced that they will join a California lawsuit against major social media companies over what Mayor Eric Adams is calling a “mental health crisis” facing young people.

A journalism teacher at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, Calif., crafted her own media-literacy curriculum with Ted Talks, documentaries, articles about TikTok’s algorithm and examples of AI-enhanced images.

Research shows a correlation between the Internet, social media and an increase among children for suicidal thoughts and other health-related concerns, experts say.

The lawmaker wants to change a key piece of federal law that shields Internet companies like X, Facebook and Snapchat from lawsuits over user posts, a protection considered the lifeblood of social media.

Senators on both sides of the aisle criticized the heads of large social media companies during a Washington, D.C., hearing on Wednesday for failing to adequately protect childrens' safety online.