Social media is everywhere nowadays, but lawmakers in Montpelier are looking to reign it in when it comes to kids. “It has negative consequences like addiction, cyberbullying, and not being able to literally get themselves off of their phones,” said Sen. Wendy Harrison. Under the proposed bill, it would limit addicting features that lead to constant scrolling, share youth data and promote advertisements or content that can harm children. “We’re also really trying to stop the infinite scroll, you know this is a feature that gets anyone, not just kids to keep looking and looking at their phone and hours go by,” said Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale. Last session, a similar bill cleared the Senate unanimously before it ran into constitutional questions from Gov. Phil Scott. Lawmakers said that part’s been resolved, but some still have other concerns, such as those that use social media and data for business.“I am really nervous for businesses. I really, really am as this moves forward, you know, we are blaming businesses for a problem that isn’t created by them,” said Sen. Russ Ingalls. NetChoice, which works to limit government regulation of the internet, said the bill would “provide a censorship regime for much of the internet” and “force digital platforms either to act as government censors or to implement privacy-invasive age verification requirements that put user data in honeypots ripe for hackers and predators to target.”Despite those concerns, 14 senators have already signed on to sponsor the bill from both sides, making it bipartisan. The bill will continue to receive testimony every day the rest of the week.
Social media is everywhere nowadays, but lawmakers in Montpelier are looking to reign it in when it comes to kids.
“It has negative consequences like addiction, cyberbullying, and [kids] not being able to literally get themselves off of their phones,” said Sen. Wendy Harrison.
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Under the proposed bill, it would limit addicting features that lead to constant scrolling, share youth data and promote advertisements or content that can harm children.
“We’re also really trying to stop the infinite scroll, you know this is a feature that gets anyone, not just kids to keep looking and looking at their phone and hours go by,” said Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale.
Last session, a similar bill cleared the Senate unanimously before it ran into constitutional questions from Gov. Phil Scott.
Lawmakers said that part’s been resolved, but some still have other concerns, such as those that use social media and data for business.
“I am really nervous for businesses. I really, really am as this moves forward, you know, we are blaming businesses for a problem that isn’t created by them,” said Sen. Russ Ingalls.
NetChoice, which works to limit government regulation of the internet, said the bill would “provide a censorship regime for much of the internet” and “force digital platforms either to act as government censors or to implement privacy-invasive age verification requirements that put user data in honeypots ripe for hackers and predators to target.”
Despite those concerns, 14 senators have already signed on to sponsor the bill from both sides, making it bipartisan. The bill will continue to receive testimony every day the rest of the week.
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