In Florida the house passed a bill prohibiting the use of social media by anyone under the age of 16. Is this the beginning of a trend?

[exitseven]

• I can't imagine how this can be enforced and even question the legality of it. I suppose if you can keep kids out of R rated movies you can get away with this.

[nightdrot]

You are not wrong that enforcement will be problematic, but the effect of the legislation is to make parents do something that they seem increasingly unwilling to do. As someone once said, "Americans don't raise children. They incite them."

The incidence of mental illness among children, suicides and other pathologies has increased in tandem with the exposure of children to social media. Yet parents stand aside and let their children - from increasingly young ages - engage in social media.

The law is a blunt instrument, though not without its' cultural impacts. Think of this. When the Civil Right Act of 1964 was passed, segregated lunch counters were pretty much the norm in the south. Yet within in a generation, it was almost unheard of.

Men shape the laws and the laws shape them. This is the intention with this legislation. First of all, its' enforcement, where possible - keeping electronic devices out of schools, etc. - will have an immediate and stigmatizing effect. This being possible.

Secondly, over the long term, the law will have a cultural influence of causing parents to be more aware of the effects of social media and to limit those effects on their children. This then having a magnified effect across the generations.

To be sure, the nation is only now coming to grips with the impacts of technology on the culture. However, to date it has been a gradual and not self-aware process. This law suggests an attempt to come to grips with technology's impact and this is long overdue.

To be sure, the law is, as noted, in many ways, a blunt instrument. It would be far better if parents were to step in and actually raise their children instead of leaving it to technology to do it for them. Yet, until that point, laws like this one are an acceptable - and wise - alternative.

[BaronReagan]

Your theory doesn't really work for drugs, for example. These laws may be considered good in principle, but in practice they won't fundamentally change things.

[nightdrot]

@BaronReagan They may only change things at the margins, but that does not negate their value. We have not eliminated bigotry either, but that does not thereby undermine the value of civil rights laws.

To be sure, sometimes the law gets too far ahead and fails outright. See also Prohibition. Your drug example has some merit, although even there, there has been an increasing awareness of the damage done by drug abuse.

Also, the law gives the state a pretext for stepping in and taking action. Drug abuse has not been stopped, but the law allows the state to intervene to protect the broader societal well being.

Bottom line, in the case of drugs, the pursuit of perfection comes at the cost of improvements at the margins. As with Prohibition, why do we want another alcohol? How many lives have been lost to drunk driving, declining worker productivity, etc.

We are not dealing in absolutes, but are working at the margins in the hopes that, in time, we may leverage better outcomes. In the case of tech, we are also dealing with an adult population that does not fully grasp the implications of tech on younger minds. Here then the law provides both a protective and educational function.

[WindAtMyBack]

I think it's a good thing in theory. But how do you define social media, and how do you enforce it?

Personally I'd like to see the entire Internet shut down. It started with good intentions, but turned into a monster that we are better off without. And it's getting worse, much worse.

[sage2021]

People will always find a way to beat the system. Especially when you tell them they can't do something. It only makes them more determined to do it.

I don't think there is even a way that law would work because really, who will be watching them when nobody's around.

I have never been on social media and I want to keep it that way. I can tell here on GaG all of the fancy words they use are from social media. And most of the questions that seem like a problem are because they don't know what something or someone means.

Questions like:
Q: Why did he put 'take care' at the end of his email to me?
Q: Why did he put smile face emoji on the message he sent me?

People have learned to overthink and over analyze almost every little thing another person does. That kind of obsessive behavior would make me psychotic.

[bingbongbangbung]

By that logic, let's decriminalize murder, rape, theft, and other horrendous crimes

[TrueConfection]

GaG is my only social media because my view of social media is that it's poison. I agree that all social media should be off limits to children too young to understand the consequences of what they post online.

With that said, I also feel the government should butt out of it. It's one thing to regulate laws against heinous acts like murder or child abduction, but the rest needs to be left up to the individual, or parents in this case.

[exitseven]

yes, the parents use social media as a babysitter.

[TrueConfection]

Thanks for the MHO ❤

[hahahmm]

Long overdue. Should have been done around 2000.

Need to harshly punish parents for anything illegal done by their kids. If the parent doesn't like it they have the option of raising their kids better or disowning the kid. Too many parents don't seem to grasp their responsibility to society to raise people who can be responsible.

[RebelinSteel]

Have they defined what is social media? I have zero problems them burning all social media to the ground, however it’s always a pointless exercise putting a law in place that it is totally unenforceable. It also means every single global Social media (definition) needs to have a 100% solid age check in place. I guess the US could follow the Chinese example and put a ‘wall’ around the entire countries internet use.

[Zestyassmf1997]

This law will probably not stand against a challenge. But I support this law anyway. Social media has been around long enough that we can now say that it generally does more harm than good. It promotes vanity, makes people stupid, and in many terminally online people fosters detachment from reality.

[exitseven]

I agree with that. It probably will not be put into law and if it did it would be impossible to enforce. However er social media has created all kinds of mental issues in young people. Something that can be a great educational tool ends up being aimed at the lowest common denominator

[Zestyassmf1997]

You probably can enforce it. But it’ll likely get shot down by a first amendment challenge put forth by tech giants.

[Nikki1989]

It is a great idea, but it will never work.

[exitseven]

I agree.

[AviatorTom]

Even R movies is a voluntary rating system. I know several parents who take their teens (23 or 24) to R-rated movies. There's no way such a law can be enforced. Sounds like an attempt to force social media providers to provide age verification.

[Unit1]

How pointless. It's only gonna make social media seem more attractive for the kids by making it seem like a forbidden fruit to indulge just like mature rated content.

[Anonymous]

Is it? Does it matter? People aren't supposed to have social media accounts until they're 13, yet that rule isn't enforced well either. I agree that I'd love to see how they intend to actually make it impossible for anyone younger than 16 have a social media account.

[TallAnon]

Sounds like a good idea to me, but indeed, the only way to enforce this is by going full China and requiring government ID to register/log in; That is not a bridge I want to cross.

[JacobJordan]

All it does is up the age from 13 to 16 and people just hit check on the box anyways

[OlderAndWiser]

We have all heard of kids committing suicide because some other kid posted their naked pictures online. Anyone have an alternative suggestion for how to prevent that from happening again?

[lightbulb27]

others may follow, but not enough.

It's garbage.

A better approach is to make it difficult to use and keep them busy or limit time.

good luck to them...

[Sparkie460]

The kids will just lie about their age like they do now to get on social media

[England4eva]

Finally. It will need proper enforcing but it's a start.

[DextroShade]

This is an excellent first step to eradicating this evil. Social media ruins people, especially women and children.

[Cubus]

For some social media it's good (like TikTok, because it's Chinese) but I don't know how they want to enforce it.

[Iron_Man]

The Miami Mayor wants to raise property taxes they’re out of their effing mind crazy woman i

[Jamie05rhs]

There are laws against kids having sex, too, but they still do it.

[Jennz6]

I heard that too

[pethouse]

In all honesty I agree with this bill.

[Miah04]

Internet