Florida House passes a bill to ban social media accounts for children under 16

Big daddy government expands its role in parenting. This kind of thing is the reason an authoritarian politician like DeSantis wont succeed in a presidential race.

Florida House passes a bill to ban social media accounts for children under 16
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireS...sses-bill-ban-social-media-accounts-106655448
Florida children under the age of 16 would be banned from popular social media platforms regardless of parent approval under a bill passed by the House

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida children under the age of 16 would be banned from popular social media platforms regardless of parent approval under a bill passed by the House on Wednesday, a measure that is the top priority for the chamber's speaker.

The bill doesn't list which platforms would be affected, but it targets any social media site that tracks user activity, allows children to upload material and interact with others and uses addictive features designed to cause excessive or compulsive use. The bill would not affect apps used for private messages between individuals.

 

What does this have to do with DeSantis? The House passed it. And it was bipartisan

 

how will social media sites verify age?

 

My view is it gives parents some cover to say "No, it's against the law to have one until your are seventeen."

There is a town somewhere that forbid cell phones to kids under a certain age. Again, helping parents set boundaries.
Yeah, I hear the chorus: "I can parent my kids without your help". If they only knew...

 

maybe they watched this southpark

"PARAMOUNT+ ANNOUNCES SOUTH PARK (NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN)"

https://southpark.cc.com/news/5sia9...suitable-for-children-now-available-to-stream

 

I don't think the parents need the government set the rules for them to enforce.

They'll have to figure it out. No doubt different red States will have different rules, and the providers will have to come up with a way to tailor the software to accommodate them all

 

And what if the parents want to say yes?

 

That's the thing. The government decides pre-emptively and that's the end of discussion. It's absurd Florida keeps saying they are "putting parents first", when they have officially put the government first, and their word if final.

 

I totally agree with limiting your kid to social media time or banning it all together. That said I don’t believe it’s the governments role to do so.

There are bans I agree with and this is not one of them. I find it funny that you think Florida is authoritarian yet they were the first to do away with COVID mandates. I think Florida is pretty good politically. As far as this I disagree but that’s it.

 

When it comes to creating laws to police morality, or human behavior, Florida is one of the most authoritarian States in the nation.

 

Here in Utah the made it to where you have to show ID to get on porn sites. I actually also agree with that because you don’t let a kid go to a porn store and buy porn without an ID so why should the internet be any different. Pretty sure Florida doesn’t do that yet.

 

I used to go to Utah to ski and they required customers to become members of bars before they served them beer. This is 20+ years ago.

Well, you mentioned Covid, and I said DeSantis locked down Florida hard as soon as Trump issued the lockdown guidelines. Then he flip-flopped and even then showed his authoritarian nature, because now we have laws which criminalize businesses asking their customers to wear a mask. So, even if there was a black death epidemic, they could not ask anyone to wear a mask. Why does the government have to mandate such thing? Can't the business owners decide that on their own? Its problematic when you create LAWS only to pander to the base. A temporary measure is one thing, but a law is permanent.

Using the government to attack businesses (not just Disney) is also authoritarian.

 

Yeah… Trumps team that first recommended to shutdown was the cause of the crash. They all were going off recommendations. However he went against recommendations when reopening and I totally agree with the way he handled that. I find it weird that you supported Covid authoritarian moves, and LGBTQ authoritarian moves in the past. I think this is more or less party lines not what’s authoritarian and what’s not.

 

I don't recall saying I support anything, and I don't even know what "LGBTQ authoritarian move" means, so lets not start with the misrepresentations.

The laws being passed in Florida ARE authoritarian, there is no ifs or buts about it.

 

I understand the concept and intent but fail to see how it can be enforced.

When my kids were teens and got jobs and I set up bank accounts for them, I was shocked they could get cell phones without parental consent. Social media and cell phone use should have some maturity and parents should be aware. We had software placed to know what they were looking into ...and they knew it and was careful...

 

Sounds like the burden will be transferred to the software providers, who can either implement software to validate the age or stop providing service to Florida (very unlikely).

Not only do they need to validate new accounts, but existing ones as well.

"The Florida bill would require social media companies to close any accounts it believes to be used by minors and to cancel accounts at the request of a minor or parents. Any information pertaining to the account must be deleted.

Opponents argued that the bill would violate the First Amendment and take away benefits some children get from social media. And they said parents should make the decisions on which sites their children can visit."

 

Parents should make decisions and be held responsible. I don't think teenagers get much benefit from social media. I think kids on social media is a negative for them and society.

 

That's a matter of opinion, and even if its true, we can't create laws to ban everything the government thinks is negative for "the developing brain". The government can't shield people from reality, because the end result is a new generation of young adults who grew up in a government controlled cocoon and are totally out of touch with the real world.

 

A lot of parents are not as strong as you are.

 

And.....the government has to take over parenting for everyone because some parents are failures? Sorry, but that doesn't make any sense.

 

So we are still pretending that the endless scroll feature and the algorithms that control which search words, and which results pop up aren't the most powerful mind control tools ever created by mankind?

 

I have mixed feelings about this. There are some very good reasons to prevent younger children from having accounts.
For example, it is negatively impacting the mental health of many teens, they are spending too much of their time with this. Sexual predators are preying on teen girls, tricking them into giving up their personal information. These days there are people that have ended up being arrested or getting into big trouble for stupid comments left on the internet. Then there is the dysfunctionality that dating sites are having on teens and society.

But at the same time this does seem to be very authoritarian and huge restriction of freedom.

It seems to me both Democrats and Republicans each have their own special totalitarian restrictions of freedom.

I think what's actually behind this legislation, however, is everyone knows the companies running these popular and trendy internet sites are super-progressive and based in Democrat areas, like NYC and the San Francisco Bay area in California.

 

I thought American parents were always pretty much against people or businesses that marketed dangerous and addictive products (that they knew were so) to their children?

 

I don't see a problem going back to the old style of cell phones, before mobile phone internet access existed.

I'd hardly call that a restriction of freedom for those under 18 or 16.

 

Sounds like you're very unhappy with the state you chose to move to. There are 49 other states to choose from.