ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – A bill proposed in the Georgia Senate would bar kids younger than 14-years-old from having accounts on major social media sites.
The bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Nikki Merritt (D-Grayson) said it’s an attempt to combat the harsh mental health issues that can arise when kids are online too early.
Merritt, a mom herself, said Senate Bill 165 would require social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to stop allowing or take down pages belonging to kids under 14.
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They could face fines of $50,000 per violation.
“It actually puts some onus on the social media companies themselves,” said Merritt. “Right now, social media has become very predatory. It is known to have some mental health implications, especially on those who are younger.”
Merritt isn’t just imagining it. The damage online use can do to young minds is well-known across the mental health space.
“I’m seeing a lot of social media addiction. Kids especially get stuck scrolling through on TikTok or Instagram reels and they can’t get out of that spiral very easily,” said certified counselor Mallory Callans with Key Counseling Group in metro Atlanta. “The social interaction these kids are having online is not the same as social interaction is in real life.”
Callans, who works primarily with clients experiencing eating disorders, said social media can exacerbate existing mental health problems.
“The self-comparison kids are doing, whether that’s from themselves to other students, themselves to influencers, celebrities, things like that,” said Callans. “Social media is the piece that I talk about with my clients who have an eating disorder, and I would say 99% of them have a really unhealthy relationship with social media.”
Last year, Georgia lawmakers passed a bill that would compel social media companies to make a “reasonable” effort to ban accounts of kids under the age of 16, but didn’t include any fine structure for failing to do so.
“We’re trying to use something that actually has a real enforcement model and that does strengthen current law,” said Merritt.
Merritt is trying to make sure kids don’t fall into addiction or destructive behaviors before they’re fully capable of understanding the dangers of social media.
Even as many adults will tell you, more social media use typically begets more social media use, and Callans says online addiction can trigger longer term dependences.
“Starting to get addicted to something at the age of 12, 13,14, that does just set you up for future addictions,” she said. “Whether that turns from social media to alcohol or drugs or porn or things like that, absolutely there’s definitely long-term risks to this.”
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