The South Carolina House just passed a bill that proposes minors who want to go on social media need to get parental consent before being able to sign up for their own accounts.
Rep. Brandon Guffey, R-Rock Hill, testified in front of a U.S. Senate committee, where he talked about his son's suicide over a sextortion scam. Under the proposed bill, which passed the SC House 90-17, parents will have to give their children consent if they want to create a social media account.
Parental Consent for Minors on Social Media
Furthermore, social media companies will have to put additional safeguards on their platforms for the children who are using them. These could include limiting who can actually message them and what they can see online.
The passing of the bill comes as a similar one passed the House 113-1 last year. However, this time, legislators have raised concerns over parental rights, privacy concerns, and a requirement that the state create educational programs about social media platforms, according to the South Carolina Daily Gazette.
There is another perfunctory vote that is set on Thursday that will send the proposed bill to the Senate, which did not decide to take up a similar version last year. Representatives agreed that minors' overuse of social media can be problematic for their mental health.
They later talked about the question of whether it should be the responsibility of legislators to control how people are able to use social media platforms. House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, asked why the government needs to do what any parent is capable of doing.
Protecting Children From Online Threats
Supporters of the bill argue that giving parents a say in their children's use of social media is necessary to protect kids from sex trafficking and predators. However, some speakers said that it could allow social media companies to collect a vast amount of personal data, News From The States reported.
The bill, known as House File 278, allows parents to revoke their authorization of their children's use of social media at any time. Additionally, the child's parent or guardian will also need to have access to the approved account in order to view posts it makes and messages it receives.
Judiciary Chairman Weston Newton said that the bill was not about the pride of authorship but of efforts to protect South Carolina's children. He added that he is hoping the Senate is willing actually to do something this year.
On the other hand, Meta, the company that operates the social media platform Facebook, released free videos on Tuesday that teach kids about internet safety. The effort was done in an attempt to combat some of the same issues that legislators raised as reasons to restrict social media before, as per Yahoo News.
