Texas legislators are considering legislation to ban minors from social media

Texas is intended to lead the nation in restrictive legislation. According to the proposed bill, minors will be banned by social media, while platforms will also be needed to introduce methods of age verification. While supporters say the change would make children more favorable, critics say that such legislation can do the exact opposite.

Introduced in November, A house bill 186 They would prevent minors from creating accounts on social media platforms such as Twitter, Tiktok, Instagram and more. Platforms will be needed to use “public or private transaction data” to confirm that account holders are at least 18 years of age. In addition, parents could request the deletion of existing accounts of their child. Companies will need to cooperate with this request within 10 days.

According to the law, social media platforms are limited to public websites or applications that allow users to communicate with each other “for the main purpose of posting information, comments, messages or images.” This would not apply to e -mail, news or gambling rooms.

The author of the bill, respectively. Jared Patterson has constantly placed within the HB 186 as an addressing of a mental health crisis. Hike Social media postHe writes: “I consider this the most important bill that I will present to my house’s colleagues this session. After extensive research, it is clear: social media is the most harmful product to which our children have legal access in Texas.”

According to Associate Age Verification Providers10 countries have adopted their own legislation, restricting the access of the social media of minors from June 2024. Many laws focus on restricting access to porn, with the existing HB 1181 of Texas, which requires an age check if at least one third of the content of the website is “sexual material, (This law is already in Center of the Supreme Court’s case.) But according to Texas tribunFlorida is the only other country with such a candid ban on social media for minors. However, it extends to only those under 14 years old.

The HB 186 has already crossed the Texas House with bilateral support, and so far it seems that Senate members are also fans. Per the Texas Tribune, Sen. Adam Hinojosa, Co-Sponsor, Told Fellow Lawmakers at A Recent State Affairs Committee Hearing, “Like So Many Parents Across Aur State, I have Wathed My Children Grow Up in A w Because of Where They Go Physically, But Because of Where They Go Online, In Spaces That My Wife and I Cannot Possibly Monitor at All Times. “

“We have the ability and power to act today,” Quinoya told lawmakers. “With Bill House 186, we face evil in front of us and we boldly say,” You can’t have our children. “

It is true that social media harm young people (and adults too). In 2023, a general of the American surgeon Vivek dead warn That although the impact of social media is not fully understood, “there are enough indicators that (it) can also be a deep risk of harm to mental health and well -being of children and adolescents.” Following Merty’s comments, the American Psychological Association released Health Council on the use of social media in adolescents. She too released a report With the US Federation for Teachers and several other organizations, describing in detail the contribution of social media to the worsening of mental health.

But strict accounts like HB 186 are not necessarily to deal with this problem. As Morgan McGuire, a 17-year-old Texas resident and the creator of Ticktock, said, according to Texas Tribune Health.

Age -verification bills also faced a reverse response to the first amendment. In a statement, Megan Stokes, Director of the State Policy for the Computer and Communication Industry Association, He said, “HB 186 conflicts with the contractual right of Texas and undermines the rights of teenagers to access information, expressing yourself and participating in today’s digital economy … (IT) is an insufficient proposal that censors speech, not in support of families with instruments and education.”

In a letter, director of the policy of the Netchoice Commercial Association, Patrick Highness, noted The laws of age check in several other countries have already been challenged and blocked by the courts, including Arkansas, California, Mississippi, Texas and Utah. Hajr also said that the texas proposed legislation “Uzurpes for parental decisions” writes, “Every family has different needs. Some parents can allow their child to use children on YouTube for educational videos, and others can choose to allow their teenage to join their own online community.

“These are choices that parents and guardians should have the right to make depending on the needs of their own child – not the government to oblige how families in Texas use the Internet,” Hajr continued.

Along with the fears of the first amendment, the bills of age verification such as HB 186 are nightmares of confidentiality. Although the legislation is said that social media platforms must delete personal data collected for age verification, it does not explicitly indicate how soon it nor provides on social media platforms on how to prove their compliance. By Highman, this supervisory stimulates platforms for collecting “multiple forms of personally identified information.”

“Platforms can use and delete a part of the” transaction data “to verify age, while collecting and retaining other personal data for the purposes of legal protection,” Hajor wrote. “This means that websites will have to collect and store sensitive information, creating massive databases that will inevitable for hackers.”